Fly high
by Kitt SummerIsle
Summary: Seekers want to be free. Even if they don't know it yet. Falcon!Seeker verse. Prequel: Taming of a Seeker.
1. Part I

**Title: **Fly high

**Author:** Kit SummerIsle

**Verse**: Falcon!Seeker G1 AU: The falcon!Seeker idea is not mine, but razordragonfly's (http : / / razordragonfly . livejournal . com / tag / fear % 20 of % 20 falling , take out the spaces or search for it on Lj – I highly recommend to read it, not only for background but for itself too). My AU is based on this, but more or less G1, only the Seekers are not like what they usually are; here, they are classified as non-, or semi-sentient flying animals (aka falcons). The war is going on as usual, and Megatron tamed most of the wild Seekers to fight for the Decepticons; but way before the war Prowl had tamed a lone Seeker (later named as Thundercracker) and later released him in the wild. During the war the Autobots realize that having fliers is pretty useful (there are no sentient fliers in the AU, all mechs are grounders, spaceships are just machines) and find Prowl's tamed Seeker with his mate (Skywarp) and incorporate them into the army. Since they are classified as (at best) semi-sentient, their status in both armies is more-or less slavery. On Earth, the Decepticons have the Conehead Trine, while the Autobots have Thundercracker and Skywarp. Starscream too pops up soon.

**Character(s): **Thundercracker, Skywarp, Starscream

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: some torture, violence, slavery and/or abuse of animals, depending on how you read it

**Summary**: Seekers want to be free, even if they don't know it yet.

**Disclaimer: **the usual. not owning it, just fooling around with TF

**Note**: I use joor for a few hours, orn for a few days, groon for a few months and vorn for a few years.

* * *

><p><strong>Part I.<strong>

**Hold me when I'm hurt**

The cage-door was slightly open when they came out of recharge, the huge hangar empty of life other than themselves, quiet at the early cycle of the orn. The windows up high let the first rays of the alien Sun in, warming up slowly the metallic walls and the hugging forms of the two Seekers; one dark blue, the other black with purple details, lying quietly together on the floor of the cage. When they noticed the open door they trilled softly to each other, like discussing the unusual occurrence before the black one got up and cautiously poked at the metallic rods that made up the entryway. They were never allowed outside without permission or in a Keeper's company and training warned Thundercracker to hold his inquisitive but careless mate back. Skywarp looked back to the blue Seeker but only hesitated for a klik before poking the door fully open; with the cage-field broken he could even teleport out, if he wanted to. He took a few more steps and sensing the hangar's peace unbroken called his mate to come out too; after some hesitation Thundercracker followed him outside, into the hangar. It was still quiet, nobody else moving nearby, as all the Autobots' quarters were further inside the Ark with only storage rooms on these lower levels. The silence and peace seemed to encourage the two Seekers even more and they moved around in the place.

Neither of them went towards the outside doors of the hangar; long experience and training instilled into them that while they were sometimes let go more or less freely inside, the outside world, true freedom was another matter entirely. But there were places to discover in the ship too and the two Seekers soon run happily around in the long corridors, with occasional jumps put in from Skywarp in rhythm with his happy trills; the Ark was a huge ship, even for two bouncingly joyful, younglinglike fliers to play tag in the early morning quiet. In the excitement of the game it was easy to forget where they were and why – the war that was not theirs never really interested them. So, they played happily until Skywarp teleported straight ahead of a mech who was running the other way and the impact crashed them both to the ground with the bigger flier on top, anxiously warbling as he realized what happened.

Thundercracker, who saw them from the other end of the corridor, was even more frightened; the mech was one of the twins, the yellow one who was always angry and threatening towards them. Skywarp, realizing the same thing panicked and warped away almost randomly, never a good idea inside the ship with all its walls and bulkheads. He got lucky – sort of – and ended up in the rec room, where the first shift's mechs were drinking their morning energon by the tables. His appearance of course resulted in a commotion and angry yells, especially when Sunstreaker exploded in there too, shouting something about a scratch on his paintjob and a Primus-slagged Seeker who kept getting out and causing trouble. Skywarp, who didn't understand a word of the rant was positively terrified by the anger directed to him, so much that he forgot even teleporting and tried to hide behind the only person not shouting at him; Prowl, who as usual kept his composure and even tried to calm down the enraged Sunstreaker.

Not that the big Seeker had any luck in hiding behind a mech half his size, even crouching down as he usually did when frightened. The joy of the game totally evaporated and although he wasn't very good at foreseeing the consequences of his actions, he got the feeling that the nice morning might not end well for him. With his mate not coming that way to help, he again chose the easiest way out, trying to teleport out of the noisy rec-room – forgetting the tactician whom he touched and therefore took with him. The unexpected weight messed up his warp and when he felt solid ground under his pedes again, Prowl was in a less enviable position; with the Seeker dropping him in mid-warp he ended up in the floor up to his calf-struts. He screamed once as the painful sensation registered but gathered his wits together and commed Ratchet for help; and curtly ordered the fearfully keening, warbling, terrified out of his wits Seeker back to his cage to avoid further possible mishaps.

But Skywarp, trying to make right his mistake teleported them instead to the med-bay, with Prowl's pedes totally infused with the metal of the floor, immobile and hurting. Thundercracker came after them finally, finding them by the loud and frightened noises that his mate gave off in his distress; he knew that they were going to be disciplined anyway, so at least he wanted to see if Skywarp was fine and calm him a bit. He was all right, but Prowl was not; and that put Ratchet into a foul mood that both of them came to learn as more frightening than any punishment. He sent the Seekers back to their hangar with Bumblebee, who came in for that reason, having seen the whole thing on the monitors.

The two Seekers were put to separate cages in the echoing hangar, a fact that told to observers that punishment will come soon to one of them. Since Prowl was in medbay, thanks to Skywarp's thoughtless and dangerous warping, it was delegated to Ironhide, always mistrustful of them and being quite harsh. Prowl usually just put Skywarp into the box for a few joors when he has done something, but Ironhide tended to be more hands-on with his punishments. Small, frightened chirps from Skywarp signified that he saw the weapons specialist enter the hangar but Thundercracker didn't answer him; the younger one never thought of consequences when he used his precious ability carelessly. They already got a scolding from Ratchet when they brought Prowl to the med-bay; the messed-up warp put his pedes into the ground and the medic would have to replace them from knee down. Not that the Seekers understood all his ranting, but even Skywarp knew that warping into something solid was painful, and he caused it to their Keeper. The teleporting ability often put him into trouble in closed places, as he did it purely by instinct and if panicked it was downright dangerous.

Ironhide never liked the Seekers much, and he was angry for having to do Prowl's work on top of his, therefore he wasn't gentle when he slapped the clips onto the black Seeker's frightfully quivering wingtips, who knew better than trying to try and shy away from the touch. Since Prowl always told them all to make sure the Seekers knew that what they did was wrong, he scolded Skywarp with the simple words that he thought they understood, before giving the clips the command that would deliver the small shock. His tone also left no doubt that he was angry, and he saw both Seekers cowering in their cages before the black wings jerked back and the Seeker whimpered in obvious pain. Ironhide gave him a few seconds of jolt through the clips and scolded the kneeling Skywarp again until he bowed down in a way that was a clear indication of begging to stop. He didn't intend to torture the Seeker any more than necessary but left the clips on his wings nevertheless; he wanted to make sure that he got the message this time. Warping into solid objects were dangerous and Prowl was fortunate that it involved only his pedes and nothing more. The blue Seeker caused few problems, but his younger mate was careless and often had to be disciplined.

When Ironhide left the hangar, Thundercracker softly trilled to his mate, still bent and whimpering; the wingtips were incredibly sensitive and the jolt he was given was strong, painful, punishing. He wanted to cuddle the black Seeker but separation was part of the punishment; the Autobots understood quite well how tactile the fliers were and how much the pair cared for each other. They may not believed that the Seekers possessed real sentience – with Skywarp it was not even surprising – but they accepted that they had more intelligence than most animals, and certainly more emotional behaviour. It was often a matter of heated discussions among the crew as to how much intelligence they possessed and accordingly how they should be treated – some went as far as comparing the taming of the wild Seekers to slavery. Nevertheless, it was this or having the Decepticons with all the aerial force and deep down all Autobots knew that it was not a real option. Even if they caused no damage in battles – which was rare - the aerial viewpoint that they provided was invaluable for the Tactician.

* * *

><p><strong>Meet me on a battlefield<strong>

When the Decepticon alarm klaxon echoed through the hallway, Ironhide turned back on the corridor swearing and ran back to the hangar he'd just left; in the absence of the tactician, he was responsible for the handling of the Seekers. He quickly attached the controllers to their collars, yanked off the clips from the black one's wingtips, and ordered them out of the cages to where the rest of the Autobots were gathering already, waiting for the order to roll out. He couldn't have cared less about the discomfort of Skywarp, still hurting from the punishment, but he noticed the blue Seeker comforting his mate with soft trills and tender caresses on the abused wings as they waited for their orders too. When Optimus Prime gave the order to move, Ironhide switched on the Seekers' controllers and gave them the signal to take wing and follow the main force to the battle. The Seekers didn't understand battle plans or tactics which meant that they had to be given orders all through the skirmish what to do – usually Prowl's part but often falling to any of the officers who qualified to handling them.

They were trained to attack what amounted to natural prey to them; the enemy grounders, identified by their faction insignias. They more or less ignored the enemy Seekers; those on Cybertron, who saw more Seekers in battles, told that they occasionally fought in the air, but seemingly only when it concerned mates or rank-battles; they blatantly ignored the faction logos on the enemy fliers and no amount of training could make them fight with each other otherwise. Only a selected few Seekers were fitted with ranged weapons, those with enough intelligence and trusted to bear them on the enemy only; while most of them fought in what was the natural way for them, attacking from above with the vicious claws and sheer mass that outweighed most grounders. This battle was little different from many others on Earth; Decepticons attacked a hydroelectric plant and tried to make as much energon as they could before the Autobot and human forces arrived to oust them. Their trine of Seekers circled overhead, clearly in a defensive formation, while Ironhide gave their pair the order to support the attack of the frontliners.

It all went quite smoothly, Thundercracker firing his newly fitted guns from above, while Skywarp teleported close and attacked more conventionally, hooking his claws into one of the Stunticons and tearing his plating and wiring viciously; the still lingering pain just gave him even more incentive to fight. He was at it until he suddenly lifted his helmet and looked interestedly to one side of the battle, completely forgetting what he was doing a klik ago; then suddenly and instinctly warped back to his blue mate's side above, warbling hurriedly to him. The sight greeting them shouldn't have been new: the twins attempted their usual Jet Judo on the Conehead Seekers and managed to down Thrust who was fighting literally tooth and claw with Sunstreaker on the ground. The yellow twin was looking quite pissed, probably about the state of his paintjob more than his well-being; the Seeker's claws could not dangerously harm his tougher armour, while he was tearing into the sensitive wing of the flier.

But the Seekers' optics were not drawn by the Decepticon flier, whom they knew, or the toughliner whom they feared; the twins were known to play cruel pranks on them and the Seekers learned to avoid them as much as they could, no matter that they were supposedly on the same side. They were watching curiously as Thrust had support from above, even though both his Trine-mates were avoiding the scuffle as much as the Autobot Seekers; the twins were feared by all the fliers. But the jet that shot Sunstreaker didn't show any fear of him; landing beside them, the tricolored Seeker promptly tackled the yellow mech and freed Thrust to escape. He was wearing the Decepticon insignia on his wings, but neither of them has seen him on the Earth battlefields before, seemingly alone with no Trine of his own. A smaller Seeker than most, unusually bright and colourful, standing proudly on the battlefield, seemingly not at all disturbed by the collar around his neck – similar to what they too wore, the mark of their status. They looked at each other for a few kliks before the strange Seeker took to the air again and disappeared in the battle and they rejoined it on their side too; but in those moments something immeasurable and undetectable passed between them that required no words.

The battle ended as it usually did, with the retreat of Megatron's forces, taking the stolen energon with them, the Seekers covering their withdrawal and disappearing after them. Ironhide gave them the call to fly back to the Ark, allowing as usual the half-joor of free flight for reward, before herding them back into their usual cage together. To fly freely was pure joy, the highlight of their life, the only one really since they had to leave their home nest on Cybertron, no matter how short time they had for it. The Seekers flew lazily towards their goal but made no haste to reach it; they had plenty of time to have some fun up in the clear, blue sky. They slowed down to a leisurely cruising speed, banking lazily to one side and the other, crisscrossing their paths with a precision that came not from calculations but sheer instinct and knowing each other. Skywarp suddenly kicked in his thrusters, corkscrewed upwards and his mate followed him, playing catch with high speeds and almost vertical trajectory, singing to him all the way till he could almost touch his wing – when his quarry, true to his name disappeared from his sight and reappeared behind. The trilling laughter was contagious, the maneuver always the same, their little, shared joke that always warmed their sparks again, no matter the circumstances.

They went to freefall, touching cockpits, synching their speed, half-transformed arms holding each other before the ground hungrily rushed up to claim them and they had to veer sharply up and away from it. The desert floor kicked up plumes of dust in their wake as they barrel rolled, twisted, looped and turned around each other, missing the other's wing sometimes less than a clawsbreadth. The thrill of flying caught them totally, even the normally more reserved Thundercracker and they promptly lost themselves in the sensations of the wind susurrating by their wings, the warmth of the sun and the burn of the thrusters. Rising higher again, they played hide and seek among the fluffy, white puffs of clouds, tearing them into pieces of wisps or hiding behind one for nanokliks by stalling; laughter and happy trills echoing in the clear sky and their entwined songs on the way back.

The two Seekers came a long way since their first, innocent meeting with advanced technology and by this time they could guess if not the workings but the function of several devices that their kind never developed. One such kept the time for them without resorting to numbers, with a colored graph that meant their allotted time flying and signaled them when it was up. The controllers were another such thing, hated by them and forgetting about it whenever they could; but they also saw many times that mechs knew what they were doing without actually being in the room with them; thereby guessing the existence of surveillance cameras in their hangar. It meant that they had only the free flight time to think and talk about the new Seeker on the Decepticon side, who was forbidden by training as he wore the enemy insignia. But they knew that he was not to be ignored. Instinct was stronger than training.

* * *

><p><strong>Instincts and memories<strong>

Alone in their cage again, the two Seekers huddled close, unhappy to be back, ignored by most mechs on board who considered them to be nothing more than highly trained and useful animals. The cold, echoing hangar was far too different from their cozy, warm nest so they could never feel at home in it, even disregarding the forbidding cage around them. Not that they were mistreated, Autobots mostly felt compelled to be fair even to mere animals – and the Seekers were useful, efficient and mostly trouble-free. Still, it was captivity, it was not the freedom of their long lost home in the Sonic Canyons that they barely even remembered after so long, and sometimes the Seekers felt it more than other occasions, huddling close, whimpering quietly and softly keening for something that they hardly knew any more. Prowl, when he heard it knew – he'd seen them fly free and happy, innocent of war and training, raising long dead winglets by the crystal forest.

Had they been there still, it would have been a happy occasion, finding their third after so long time; but the unknown Seeker was enemy, wore the insignia that they must fight with as per training and anyway they could never go and meet with him in flight, court him and be courted, weaving their songs together until they reached harmony… the Seekers' instincts were suppressed by the taming, the reward/punishment training that made them obedient fighting machines - but the need for the Trine run very deep. Even Prowl, who probably knew the most about wild Seekers thought that they came either in twos or threes; never realizing that each pair remained so only until they found their third. The Decepticons who had more Seekers realized that they fought best in Trines and let them remain so, let them this one choice of finding their proper mates among the flock. Not that Thundercracker ever envied the enemy Seekers for this freedom; he saw them in battles and saw the restraints on them, the marks of abuse on the wings and the fearful way they reacted to their masters' signals… he might have been ignorant of the ideological differences between the factions, but he instinctly knew that they got the better deal with the Autobots.

Bumblebee brought them their daily energon and the Seekers perked up; the small bot was not afraid of them, and usually let them play in the hangar for a while, even joined them in it, before locking them up again for recharge. The sparkling games and toys he brought them excited the blue Seeker, while the paint and all messy substances intrigued the black one; anything resembling to balls and bouncing sent them both into hilariously exuberant games, chasing the balls all around. Bumblebee often admired their capacity to warble, trill and chat almost without a break all the time while they played; it reminded him of Bluestreak's continuous chatter but with musical tones. He couldn't help but notice that the happy noises were always muted and silenced in the cage though. His human friends rarely came with him to the hangar; Seekers were in general totally ignorant about sentient organic life and consequently reacted to the far smaller humans as though they were prey.

But he found that they liked all kinds of music, be it Cybertronian, human or from any other sentient race, and sang together often. Nobody understood their songs, just like their languages; Blaster and Jazz said that they could identify a few trills denoting specific objects or concepts, but not even before the war was the whole language decrypted. As for the Seekers, they understood several dozen simple commands both spoken and signaled to them during battles; they were quick to understand any drawn instructions, even complex ones – but beyond that… nobody knew exactly how much of Cybertronian speech they caught. Bumblebee spoke to them often, Prowl sometimes, and of course nobody could silence Bluestreak who also liked the Seekers' company and often volunteered to their care. Sometimes he thought that they answered to him; when in a specific mood, their ruby red optics were following every small movement he made, every sound he produced, in an eerily observant way – and every once in a while one of them trilled back something that he didn't understand, and that was the end of the communication attempt.

Prowl came in, fresh out of med-bay and nodded silently to the scout, taking up his usual place in the hangar watching the Seekers play; and Skywarp fearfully, guiltily came closer to him, warbling in a low tone, like apologizing for a mistake but fearing his anger at the same time. He crouched by the tactician while Thundercracker watched them from the middle of the hangar, apprehensively following their interaction - obviously worried about his mate but knowing that he should not interfere. Prowl of course didn't even think of punishing him again after Ironhide took care of that; but the Seekers apparently weren't sure of it. Since he became SIC, he rarely had enough time for overseeing their training and knew that others sometimes employed harsher methods that produced faster results. If anything he wanted to show them that he was not angry; petting the Seeker's dark helm he was glad to sense some of the fearful tension leaving his frame and voice.

"The 'Cons have a new Seeker. We saw him today and he seems to be a bold one." – Bumblebee thought that the new Decepticon Seeker was downright vicious given how he behaved in the battle, but cutting back on the sentiment for Prowl.

"Did they react to him?"

"As a matter of fact yes. They watched him about as intensely as they usually watch some prey or the like. I mean… quite interestedly."

"A single Seeker? That is unusual."

"Yes, he seemed to be alone."

"Was he watching them too?" – Prowl pointed to their Seekers, playing in the hangar.

"I'm not sure about that… maybe, but not as obviously as their reaction was. I'll check their recordings." – the Seekers carried a small recording device too that downloaded its content into Teletraan regularly. It was one of those nicer methods of making sure that they didn't misbehave and it dubbed for battle analysis too as the aerial view provided very good means for that.

* * *

><p><strong>New place, new rules<strong>

The Seeker went after the other Trine, all of them obediently following their masters to the Nemesis, shuddering again – as always - when the tower lift sank under the water with them. The first time it did he panicked, senses telling him about all the water above his head, the sensation totally the same as being underground. Not that he really got used to being here, it was all too soon, only a few groons since he was brought to Earth, to this planet with so much wetness and strangeness on it. He didn't miss Cybertron with all of it in smoking ruins, all the free energon gone and the acid rains in the eternal darkness that made flying a challenge at best and impossible at worst. Not to mention Shockwave, he was most definitely not missing him. The only thing he longed for was the company of the other Seekers in Darkmount; few as they were after eons of war, but still more than the lone Trine here.

He never found a partner, much less a third and it set him apart from all the others; since there were no winglets any more he resigned to be alone forever. It was half the reason why Shockwave chose him for his experiments – the other half being that he was the smallest of his kind. Although most Autobots soon learned that smaller didn't equal to weaker; he was a dangerous fighter, fast, agile and vicious, armed with weapons and able to fight barehanded as well. The experiments made him more intelligent too; he didn't understand what the Con scientist did with him, of course he wasn't told about the process that started the development of his processor not unike sparklings' growth; but he knew that as time passed, he understood more and more about the world around him. Shockwave didn't want the Seeker to be too clever of course, just a more intelligent animal that could understand complex orders, while retaining the loyalty that translated to unquestioning obedience in his single optic. The Seeker understood that all too well; obeying orders was a basis of their existence, instilled into them by harsh training, while their inability to speak Cybertronian ensured that they never questioned said orders.

As his processor developed and the memory banks filled with experience and learning, he understood the necessity of hiding this from Shockwave; as far as he was considered a dumb animal and underestimated he had a chance to escape one day. To somewhere… the place where he could be free was the single greatest problem that he couldn't solve yet. So he consistently showed only the tenth or so of his true development and even less as time passed, until the one-opticked mech was satisfied that his intelligence maxed out at about a level of a ten vorn old youngling and started to train him in complex battle maneuvers and the use of several weapons. Megatron of course wanted the advanced Seeker for his army on Earth as soon as he heard of it, so he was brought here. Unfortunately it meant that he had to earn trust again; the Decepticon leader's paranoia didn't even let him trust Shockwave's word about the obedience of the Seeker and Soundwave's telepathic ability never really worked with Seekers.

So he was here, in a cage again, just beside a slightly bigger one with the Coneheads in it, learning the new rules in this new place. Back in Darkmount there were a lot of Seekers on the ground level hangars, a lot of mechs in the upper level personnel quarters and the two rarely mingled; save the Handlers who gave orders and punishments they had little contact with most of the mechs aside from the battles. Here, he was a new interest for the bored and frustrated soldiers of Megatron's local army; there wasn't much they could do in the sunken spaceship and the caged, restrained Seekers offered easy targets to bully, especially as he was alone. There were rules not to damage them of course, but they left a lot to the interpretation – humiliation didn't injure and small wounds were taken care of their fast self-repair systems.

He turned as the mechs circled the cage, trying to keep them all in sight, but failing as they played with him. The shocksticks were set to a low setting so they didn't hurt much unless a sensitive spot was hit. The Coneheads huddled together in their cage, absolutely silent and unmoving, guiltily glad that it wasn't them being the targets this time. The loud leering and sick glee of the four smaller mechs was the only sound in the darkened and slightly damp storage room that was the only one big enough to contain the Seeker cages with room to spare beside. When a shockstick connected to his plating, the small sparks falling from the contact lightened up the place and caused his vents to slightly hiccup. The pain it caused was far from being serious, even as the charge grew with the consecutive jolts – it was more humiliating than hurtful, until one of them found the controls for the obedience clips on the wingtips. That hurt a lot and it was sudden, unexpected, unavoidable; he yelped in pain and hissed threateningly at the mech who caused it, instinctly flexing the deadly, but in the cage useless claws.

They laughed louder, taunting the riled Seeker with more and harder shocks from the sticks, interspersed with the jolts to the sensitive wingtips and joints. He knew that he shouldn't act so boldly, he shouldn't grab for the sticks and break the one he could clasp; he was supposed to curl up in a ball and whimper… but it just wasn't in his nature to give up until he could fight. Not that he could, not really… they held his leash still and until he got rid of that he was restrained from real fighting, only allowed as much as it amused his tormentors. Ever since his intellect developed, he resented the captivity and the casual cruelty more and more, understanding the humiliation in it – the mechs outside the cage were no better or more than he himself. He existed somewhere between his kind and his masters; more aware of his situation than the former but unable still to divest the yoke of the latter.

He managed to get hold two of the shocksticks that then lay broken on the floor of the cage and that left one mech with the remaining stick and the fourth with the clip-controls; while he could do nothing about the latter, he could easily avoid the single remaining attacker, even with the occasional spasms from the pain that spread in his wings. Finally, he got hold of the last rod and threw it at the mech with the controls; from the outside, the way he grabbed the handle and a claw flicked the toggle seemed purely an accident, forcing the shockstick to its highest setting, felling the mech immediately on contact with a scream. After all, a Seeker couldn't have known how to use a device in quite that way. The Stunticons were disappointed somewhat; the play with the lone Seeker didn't quite end as they had wanted it, but it was fun until the fragger hasn't brought down Drag Strip with that lucky throw.

* * *

><p><strong>Relationship forged in the Pit<strong>

Megatron watched interestedly the monitor that showed the Seekers' hangar. It was a quiet shift, not much to do, nobody to discipline and no plans to weave; the commotion down there started out as a nice deviation from the general boredom and he noticed many on-duty mechs paying attention to the same monitors. It was not general knowledge that the new Seeker was different from the others, in fact only he and Soundwave knew about the experiments and their results. The Seeker was certainly livelier and more resourceful than the Coneheads that they had known for a while. He actually managed to get rid of the Stunticons with only marginal injuries to himself – and showed not only luck but planning and applied intelligence in it. It was well worth looking at and maybe investigate further.

"Vortex, bring that Seeker up here." – he spoke up suddenly in the quiet of the throne room.

"Yes my Lord. At once."

He watched on the monitor as Vortex got down, shackled and leashed the Seeker to lead him up there. When they arrived, he was made to kneel in front of Megatron, optics on the floor, quiet and subservient, knowing better than show defiance like he did to the Stunticons.

"Do you understand me?"

A flicker of the red optics upwards, before the Seeker hesitantly nodded his dark helm in an answering gesture. He understood almost everything that wasn't too technical, but didn't want to betray that fact to the warlord, even though it was harder and harder to hide his intelligence as it grew. He got Megatron's measure since he was brought here and what he saw froze his spark in fear; he was far more dangerous than Shockwave at his worst, because he was unpredictable, paranoid **and** violent. Not to mention big and strong.

"I see that you resent your cage."

The dark helm bobbed birdlike to the side, the optics showing confusion to the meaning of the statement. He'd better not understanding it, because there were no satisfactory answers to it, nothing that would be acceptable to the leader.

"You don't like the cage?" – Megatron tried with simpler words. It wasn't his habit to repeat himself, but the Seeker couldn't help his limitations, so he gave him a little leeway. As far as he was in a good mood.

A hesitant, small shake of the helm, fear in the optics, wings plastered to his back to show smaller area for punishment if it came to that. Cautious glances to the sides, to check who is watching. The telepath is a danger, even though he cannot truly see Seeker minds, as they work so much differently, thinking in colours, emotions, flickering moods instead of definite words. Still he can catch some concepts accidentally.

"What do you like then? Fighting?"

Definite nods. Much less sensitive topic, easier to answer and not get hurt. Hopefully.

"Fighting with Decepticons, like you did just now?"

Wings frozen in fright. The allusion definitely promises punishment, as the rules are clear on this; he cannot hurt his masters, not even in self-defense and he did exactly that with the shockstick. He shakes his helm in desperation, trying to get out of the trap, but without words he cannot explain, he is not expected to explain his position. He shouldn't even have a position, a point of view, he is not entitled to one. A small, frightened warble escapes his vocalizer, scratchy and rasping, carrying no meaning beside his fear.

"Do you understand what a Decepticon is?" – Megatron was not really angry, the Stunticons were bothersome and they well deserved what they got – if they couldn't handle a caged Seeker then said Seeker could do as he pleased with them for all he cared. But all the same, he enjoyed the frightened cowering of the flier in front of him, who flicked a quick glance up to him again, and one viciously sharp claw from the shackled servos pointing to his faction insignia, emblazoned on his wings.

"Excellent. And who is it that you have to obey if you are a Decepticon?"

He took a few kliks to answer, like he needed time to decrypt the sentence and decide how to answer it; instinctly he knew that simple pointing would be interpreted as impolite, pretentious. Shuffling a step closer, he bobbed the dark helm to the floor, close, but not quite touching the pedes in front of him. Another fast, almost imperceptible glance upwards, the burgundy red optics making sure of the reaction. Good, he is satisfied with the obeisance. A small shuffle back, moving quietly so he wouldn't take note of it, but which puts a little distance between them for safety's sake.

"Good. See that you never try to defy **me**." – Megatron was actually impressed by the Seeker's ingenuity; not only he understood the questions and managed to answer, but he did it in a more or less proper way.

Unfortunately the conversation, such as it was put Megatron in a too good mood, one that made him decide that he liked the Seeker enough to want to keep him around more instead of having him in the cage. During the day cycles his collar was fastened to the wall with a short chain that put him into the corner of the throne room; although it meant no cage but his freedom was limited even worse and he had to be careful of every move he made, every reaction that he gave when he was asked. Singing and any other sounds were out of question either and even the slight comfort of the Coneheads' company nearby was denied to him. For a few dozen or so orns he listened to the Decepticon officers talking in the room and enlarged his secret vocabulary, but eventually the lack of movement and stimulus took its toll on his mood too. He ached for a battle at last so that he could get out and fly – and maybe to see those two Seekers that he noticed the last time. Not that he could do anything about them, but just remembering to their colors made him feel better.

Megatron's presence was a threat every time he was there; good mood was a rare visitor with him and when he got angry, the Seeker wanted nothing more than became invisible or one with the wall he pressed flush to, so that the storm would not hit him. He could rarely avoid it though. Restrained and forced to obey he had to be there and take whatever punishment Megatron's frustrated anger unleashed - on him when the others saw it coming and left the danger zone in time. Quietly whimpering, he nursed a wing this time that took Megatron's rage over the failure of the newest superweapon they were supposed to build. Apparently it exploded even before it was ready and the news were given to him through the com; the Constructicons were no fools and knew that he vented his anger straight away on whomever he could.

When he ordered the Decepticons to attack the human research laboratory anyway as he'd planned, the Seeker knew that he probably couldn't fly with his wing in such condition – or not far anyway before it would give out from the strain he had to put on the bent struts. But of course saying no was not in his power and by this time he thought that being shot down in a battle was a better-sounding fate than the one he was having. So he went with the other Seekers and followed his orders until his wing could take it; the pain radiating from it was so much that he screamed occasionally, while firing and fighting the Autobots, living up to his name that few used – a forgotten, average Con soldier called him first Screamer while they tamed him with fire, pain and the small, dark box, all Seekers worst fear to be closed in.

When he passed the combatants low one time, strafing them with his guns, he suddenly felt an extra weight on his back, and even worse pain than so far as ruthless servos tore the plating there, exposing and wrecking wiring and sensitive inner components. The damaged wing chose this moment to fail completely and bent painfully upwards; then he with his attacker was dumped headfirst towards the ground, scrambling desperately to transform before crashing into it. He managed it just before the impact which knocked him out for a few breems, sprawled on the ground, unknown to him in the midst of the Autobot ranks, with a gleefully victorious Sideswipe on top of him, hardly even shaken by the fall that the Seeker cushioned for him.


	2. Part II

**Note**: plain _Italics_ is Seeker-song, while ::_comm_::

* * *

><p><strong>Part II.<strong>

**Dead or alive?**

They landed beside the crashed pair, disregarding their orders to fight with the Decepticons, Skywarp teleporting them to the fallen Seeker as fast as he noticed what happened. All the way in the battle they followed the Con Seeker's movements in the melee, one of them always keeping an optic on him; not with conscious thought, more like instinctly dreading something to happen and wanting to be there when it did. None of them dared to go closer until the battle-crazed Sideswipe stormed away to find a new target for himself, leaving the messed-up flier on the ground, out cold. The tricolored Seeker was in a bad condition, his whole backside a mess from the red Twin's attack, while the wing was twisted upwards in a way that told them no flying for a long time – if ever. It was a kind of injury that even their fast and efficient self-healing couldn't fix.

Skywarp went closer, sadly trilling to the unconscious flier, stroking the uninjured wing with a gentle servo – but their controller demanded the attention more and more forcefully by then, ordering them to take off and attack at once, or else. Ironhide's voice didn't give them details but the tone promised more discipline back to the Ark. Thundercracker transformed and took wing straight away, but the black Seeker ignored the increasingly painful tugs for a few more kliks to warble something to the awakening flier – something he thought more important than any punishment that the Autobots could give him. When he went, he teleported to Ratchet and took the medic with him on a return trip – acting on instinct, hoping that he understood the intent, the aching Seeker finally joined his mate in the battle as the device on his collar demanded.

Ratchet hasn't got any patients so far, so he was only surprised when the normally easygoing Seeker suddenly teleported him into the middle of the ranks and not angry at him; the feeling was not pleasant but he had a little experience with it. He saw the downed jet on the ground but noticed the Decepticon insignia on the torn wings too – he didn't think that it was his job to repair the enemy Seekers, but his medic's conscience didn't let the flier bleed out his energon to the ground. He tied up the torn tubes and so stabilized the Seeker's condition, but he didn't want to do any more – especially as he soon had injured Autobots to fix which took precedence for him. He forgot about the Seeker soon and moved back to a more defended position to take care of the wounded until the Decepticons retreated – eventually they always did that.

But when the battle ended they had an unusual situation with the normally obedient Seekers, who just simply refused to leave the place as ordered or move away from the injured Con Seeker. No matter the commands, the threats and eventually the disciplinary shocks – the blue and black forms stood by their fallen kindred, wings flaring high, ready to defend him from even the irate twins. They stood among the ruins of some human buildings, bemusedly watching their Seekers behaving like they were torn between training and another, equally strong feeling. Their wings fluttered high and fast, the trills definitely nervous and every once in a while one of them would flash a warning clawed servo towards the Autobots, hid immediately as their reflexes locked down the fleeting display of aggression towards their masters. But it was clear that they would not leave without the injured jet.

"There is something going on with that one. They never before behaved this way. Like they know him or something."

"Yes, it is like they want to tell us something… or do. Skywarp brought Ratchet to that one, you saw?"

"Probably they want us to take him back with us."

"But there is no way we take a Con Seeker in, is there, Optimus?" – Ironhide was a close second behind Red Alert when it came to paranoia about Decepticons; only he showed it in hatred.

"Ironhide, you can't mean the Cons planned something insidious with a Seeker?" – Prowl didn't understand the situation any more than the rest of them but among all the possible scenarios that he ran through his battle computer the possibility of this being a covert mission was actually rather low. Seekers simply had not enough intelligence for one such and Decepticons just wouldn't trust one of them with it either.

"Even if they didn't, he is still trained to kill Autobots. We can't take him back to the Ark."

"We can put him into a cage like the others. It is not like we let them roam freely on the ship."

"And then what? They don't take well caged up for any length of time."

"It is true. But maybe we can retrain him – our Seekers seem to have a soft spot for him and it might help."

"You hope." – Ironhide's snort was not showing much hope in that idea.

The figure on the ground chose this moment to twitch once and give out a broken, staticky sound – eliciting some excited ones from the two Seekers hovering beside him anxious, frightened but not moving away no matter their orders. They looked strange standing tall among the ruins and destruction, towering over all but one of their masters; mostly they were taught to crouch or kneel on the ground exactly to avoid this. Prowl and Ironhide weren't the only ones drawn there by the strange sight; the rest of the Autobots also gathered around, making the Seekers more and more nervous. They were rarely, if ever in the center of so much attention and when they did it always meant trouble. They didn't know what to do; leaving their prospective third was out of question, defying their masters also and they had no idea how to communicate their wish to them either. Prowl was their best chance and Thundercracker tried to garner his attention by moving closer and trying to pull him towards his mate.

The Seekers seemed to try to convey something, Prowl was sure. After drawing him nearer, they moved back to their fallen kin, hugging and stroking first each other's wings, then cautiously the injured one, lifting the mostly limp body and glancing at him all the time, like asking if he understood it. He kinda got the situation or he thought so; the gestures were the ones they used to express affection, and he knew that Seekers sometimes – or rather often - came in threes. Not that it helped the third one being a Decepticon – he had a strong suspicion that the other two didn't care a whit about the factions this time. The injured one didn't move or chirp a lot; apparently he was fairly heavily damaged and it was impossible to ascertain what he thought of the proceedings, or even if he was aware of the situation.

"I think they want us to try and make it work." – ha said at last – "They do seem quite adamant on having that Seeker. The fact that they defy orders is telling a lot."

"'Hide, I'm sure that we can handle one more Seeker." – Optimus has never been truly comfortable with using Seekers for the war, in a very different way as Ironhide; he was not vary of them but disturbed by their occasional display of sentience. – "Prowl, how would you tell them that we agree?"

"That is easy at least." – Prowl gave the Seekers the signal to go back to the Ark and pointed to all three of them in turn. They understood it at once, he was glad to see, their trilling acquiring a definitely happy pitch and gathering the injured flier between them they slowly took off. The Con Seeker was still cheeping occasionally, but heavy static twisting his voice, the uninjured wing jerking sometimes, like he wanted to move on his own – but he couldn't and finally let the others carry him.

* * *

><p><strong>Whose side are you on?<strong>

When they all arrived back to the Ark, the three Seekers were agitatedly awaiting them at the hangar door, all three chirping and trilling, albeit the Con one still in a weak, broken tone. They herded the pair into their own cage, and put the injured flier into a separate one; it didn't go well with them but eventually, after many strict commands and answering screeching, mainly from Skywarp they seemed to accept the inevitable. The tricolored Seeker was restrained in the cage, the weapons removed from his arms – Wheeljack eyed them interestedly and took them for further examination - and all limbs securely fastened to the ground. Ratchet still growled at having to practically rebuild the wing struts – the Seekers rarely needed medical attention as their self-healing usually took care of most injuries and he definitely wasn't very comfortable in the cage with him. He was online most of the time, and Ratchet also grumbled about the almost continuous chirping and warbling that the three of them produced.

"It is like I'm in one of those human pet-shops I swear with dozens of birds. Only louder. And I can't even hit them with a wrench, because they wouldn't understand it."

"There is a silence command for them." – Prowl offered to the frustrated medic.

"Yeah, and do they look like to you that they want to be quiet? I guess you'd better not to give them commands now, if you don't want them to be ignored. Quite obvious that their instincts are close to overwhelm their training and it is unwise to push them over the edge."

"Indeed. I don't think they would go that far but you can be right."

"Skywarp might." – Prowl had to agree with the terse comment from Ratchet; the black Seeker has always been the wilder of the two and less inclined to obey the commands. Right now he was pressing his frame to the bars and hardly looking anywhere else that the other cage with its occupant – only to glower and hiss angrily at Prowl sometimes, which in itself was highly unusual. Thundercracker was behind him, almost as agitated, but still calming his mate with soft caresses on the quivering wings and slightly calmer warbling.

"Right. I am finished with the wing – the rest will have to take care of itself." – Ratchet offered some energon to the Seeker who seemed to look at him almost thankfully – it must have been his imagination – and lapped up the pink liquid eagerly. He lay quietly in the restraints, apparently used to them, only tried to turn his helm once towards the other cage but the angle was impossible and he gave up. He still answered to their trills occasionally; to the watching Prowl it was obviously a conversation, even if he didn't understand any of it. He left the hangar soon, letting the Seekers get acquainted, knowing that their monitors were watched closely by many Autobots this night. Not that they could discern much from what they were doing so far – until the new Seeker was restrained, they could only make noises.

For the next few orns the new Seeker remained as he was, healing slowly but still not allowed to move freely, even in the cage – the strict restraints were gone, but his servos with the deadly claws were still handcuffed together and fastened to the ground. They had to let the other two out, as even in the best of cases they got restless after a few joors in there; but as soon as their cage was opened, they ignored their favorite toys as well as the audience and went to the new Seeker, settling down by the bars, petting his wings and exploring his frame cautiously. It would be almost cute, Jazz thought, if they weren't so big and dangerous looking with those wicked claws…

"Look at it Prowl, watcha Thunder' is doing!" – his voice cut into the soft trills of the Seekers, who all fell silent and looked his way. – "No problem, lil' ones, just don'cha mind me."

"What have you noticed?" – Prowl was watching the blue Seeker, who had his servo on the smaller one's uninjured wing but couldn't see what made Jazz so excited.

"Wait, wait, he stopped now. I hope he gets back to it if we don't talk."

Thundercracker soon returned to what he was doing after glancing at them and making sure that they didn't want to interrupt. He was scratching the wing's surface in a very specific way, with the flat of his claws, the intent clearly being to remove the ruined but still discernible Decepticon logo from its surface. His trained reflexes clamored every time he looked at it, training compelling him to consider the one bearing it as enemy, while his instincts were drawing him towards the Seeker; and his solution to the inner conflict was to remove the offending emblem. The injured Seeker turned his helm towards the movement, looking bemused but interested; and after a klik he flexed the wing slightly to help him having better access to it.

"Almost like they are doing it deliberately… but they cannot, right?" – Jazz was fascinated by the Seekers as they were almost fully concerned by each other again. He didn't usually care about them a lot but this development caught his imagination too. He wasn't the only one either; a small group of Autobots stood at the corner of the hangar, watching the Seekers interact, commenting on them to each other.

Prowl glanced at his mate. "Why not? Thundercracker certainly looks like he knows what he is doing."

"Don't ya tell me that they know what defection means…"

"Maybe not on that level, true. But he recognizes faction avatars and I think he knows that it is inappropriate here. After all he knows that here we all have a different one."

"Inappropriate… you make it sound like they are that sophisticated."

"Prowl is a great advocate of Seeker intelligence. I'm surprised he never told you about it." – Bumblebee was fond of the Seekers who often behaved like younglings, played with them a lot, but he never saw clear proof that they were any more than clever animals.

"He is not the only one to believe in it. I saw a lot of Seekers, way back before the war and some of them displayed a shocking level of sophistication." – if anyone, Mirage should know; his family used to have a tamed Seeker, as it was a fashionable thing to flaunt one at parties at the time. Not that the young noble cared much about it back then; their Seeker was a rather cowed, frightened one who basically did nothing but tried to hide from the attention that for him meant ridicule, poking and hurt.

"Training can achieve a lot with clever animals and a lot of determination. It doesn't mean intelligence." – Sideswipe looked disdaining at the Seekers. As he was the one thrashing the Con jet he came down to see how things turned out with him, but so far he was not impressed.

"All right… tell me who trained Thunder' to scratch out that Decepticon logo? Because I think we trained him to kill those who wear it."

"I don't know, but I sure won't believe that it is what you imply. Maybe he hates the purple on him because Skywarp has purple. Sorta exclusivity or whatnot."

"As amazing as it is coming from Sides', he might even be right ya know Prowler?" – Jazz was laughing at Prowl's incredulous face at the wild guess.

As the playtime drew to the end, they suddenly heard a loud screech from the cage and their Seekers backing off from it, whimpering low, unhappily, like kicked puppies. The Con Seeker was hissing and gesturing angrily as much as he could, until he noticed the mechs watching – then he fell quiet at once, the red optics glancing at them almost like measuring their attitude.

"I swear right now I could almost believe in their intelligence. That look was positively malicious – I wouldn't have been surprised seeing it on old Megs."

* * *

><p><strong>Seekers and songs<strong>

Starscream was not surprised when he onlined to a painfully hurt, but healing frame and finding that he was restrained and in a cage. He faintly remembered the battle, the sudden attack from behind, the fall that ended in a crash… and from then on some broken shards of memories… of Seekers nearby, Autobots also nearby, and lots of voices, some in Seeker-cant, some Cybertronian speaking of him and deciding his fate. Back to the present, the twisted wing was still throbbing painfully, but as he turned his helm, he saw that it was patched, straightened and in a brace. It meant a medic and he was actually surprised by that; Seekers who were seriously damaged were usually left to die, or deactivated if someone felt merciful towards them. But maybe Autobots were different… much as he learned about their world, his knowledge about them was still pitifully little; coming only from guards who bragged to each other about the Autobots they killed, and how they fought; some snatches of scenarios that he saw in battles and made him think, and lately Megatron's grumbling about them – all in all, not much and not flattering. Cons usually called them soft-sparked and craven; the first might be true, he knew but he never experienced cowardice from them – they fought just as well as everyone.

As his wing healed and he was let up from the strapped down position he could observe a bit more of the place and the Autobot Seekers in the cage next to his. The hangar was far bigger than any of the places he was ever kept in, big enough and having even windows up high so he didn't feel any claustrophobia. It felt great to see natural light coming in – dimly he remembered a time long ago on Cybertron when he saw sunlight there dancing in the metallic canyon-walls and the crystal forests... But that memory came with sadness and desolation; a wordless yearning for a lost home, freedom and mates… mates? He never had mates, no matter how far he'd flown to seek them. Ohh… the almost imperceptible scent drew his attention from the sky in the windows to a point nearby. They were watching him, drawn to the near side of their own cage, crimson optics following his slow, careful moves as he rose to a kneeling position, stretching carefully his healing frame. They were not restrained and he was shocked to see that neither had clips on their wingtips, although some scratches there instinctly told him that it was not an unknown thing to them. Both obviously had Autobot marking on their wings and collars around the necks - no surprise there at least.

The black and purple one warbled a long-winded _greeting/meet/pleased/eagerness_ verse to him and he cautiously trilled back with _hurt/unknown/query _– with a bit more concise fashion than the Autobot Seeker, obviously a talker. His question got answered by the blue Seeker, with the deeper, calmer tone of voice; his _home/safe/kin_ was greeted with a derisive snort only from Starscream, but the other insisted; he stressed the _safe/well/known_ no matter the interrupting screeching of _unsafe/enemy/cage_. He learned the specific notes for Autobots, by identifying it with the faction logo on their wings and told them the Decepticon one, adding_ pain/cage/dark/hurt_ to it. It was slow going, he realized as they exchanged specific concepts that never existed in their cant; since he learned Cybertronian language concept he found their wordless, long-winded, emotion-filled warbling tedious. It was a fine way to amuse themselves in the wild with stories and feelings, but since they needed to exchange specifics, it was distinctly inefficient.

The black one warbled again for a while and it came down to _trine/court/query/want_ in a way that spoke clearly of his longing; the other one also wove his lines into it, adding his _need/waiting/welcome/query_ to the yearning song. They added their Autobot-given designations too; it took a while to translate both Skywarp and Thundercracker into Seeker-cant, while his Screamer came through easily, and he added Star to it to make it a bit more to his liking. Neither of them had a real Seeker name from way back, as they had not lived enough in the flock to earn one – meaning that they were more or less stuck with these designations, given to them by their masters. As for their song… well, he'd known about their intentions of course; they were clear the first time they saw each other and he couldn't deny the pull towards them either. But he wasn't as naïve as the Autobot pair. His notes took a hard edge as he sang them _Autobot/enemy/Decepticon_ and went on without waiting for an answer to _trine/Autobot/punish/separate_. Thundercracker answered in an affirmative to the first part, but insisted that _Starscream/join/Autobot_ and _trine/separate/negative_. As if that was so easy…he would believe it when he saw it.

Then came a time when some Autobots came into the hangar and he was suddenly tense, aware of the defenseless position he was in, still shackled. He noticed that most of them were even smaller than the Decepticons, but at least neither of them carried shocksticks and his wingtip clamps were removed at some point too, strange as it was still to him. He was also surprised by the loud trills from the other cage – were they so big fools as to call attention to themselves? But to his surprise – no, it was close to a shock and drew a surprised screech from him – a black and white Autobot actually opened the other cage and seemingly unafraid of the Seekers, let them out to the hangar. Even more amazingly they took it as a usual occurrence, like it was something they expected and awaited; and he could hardly chirp a shocked _free/unafraid/go/query_ out. They both came over to his cage before answering and trilled a happy _play/free/reward_ to him, before Skywarp asked _permission/touch/cuddle_ and they both settled down by his him, as close as the bars and restraints allowed.

The Autobots grouped at one corner of the big hangar, one of them getting some objects out – he tensed again, not knowing what they intended, but the unconcerned singsong voice of the two Seekers – _play/toys/friend_ - calmed him down a bit. He divided his attention between them and the Autobots, still not trusting them to stay away and just let them be, but the attention from the Seekers' touches was nice. He could hardly remember the last time he had such cuddling; it must have been hundreds of vorns since any mech tried to touch him like this. Too bad that he couldn't return the touches, as his servos were still fastened down to the ground. Thundercracker suddenly touched a claw to the faction avatar on his wing and warbled a _Decepticon/negative/enemy/negative_ to him that he shrugged off with _face/wing/unimportant_ and _Seeker/enemy/cage_ but the other started anyway, scratching the purple emblem off his wing. They all noticed the Autobots becoming interested in the act and the blue Seeker trilled a victorious _face/negative/approval_ to him. His _whatever/cage/enemy_ went almost unheard in the other's glee.

The Autobots eventually turned their attention away from them and he relaxed his frame a bit – the nice touches certainly helped – and they happily got down to singing delicious songs to each other. He had to admit the other two was great in this, beautifully entwining their notes, trying to draw his song into it too, leaving no doubt as to their intention. But he couldn't relax fully, nor give in to their enticing little caresses, the suggestive fluttering of the wings… he shook his helm, trilling an unhappy _cage/restraint/sadness_ to them for an answer. They understood it of course, courting just wasn't possible there and Skywarp tried to comfort him with some _wait/hope/fly/high_ song – but he couldn't believe in that of all things. Why would the Autobots let him fly? They could only fly in battles anyway, under the command of their controllers, but he was a Decepticon on top of it, and it was all the worse for finding some Seekers who could be trine but cannot still… he shook their touches off angrily, his mood suddenly turning black, shackled servos clenching in anger, his voice screeching _angry/goaway/hate/frustrated_ that made the other two sad…

The Autobots turned towards them at that, their frowns promising bad things again and he huddled lower, trying to hide his anger, calm his vocals and unclench his claws; they must not think that he is angry at them and punish him… hide the anger, conceal the hate, play the obedient Seeker who is happy to serve them now… find out the rules, get to know them and wait for his chance – the one he has been waiting for far too long. Would these two help him? They seemed to be obedient, trusting and amazingly believing to their masters enough to call this place _home/safe_… the Autobots moved towards them, but apparently not for punishments, simply herding the Seekers back to their cage and checking his restraints. He tensed as they moved around the cage, uncomfortable that he couldn't turn and see them behind, but no surprise came, noone even touched his cage. Two of them stood talking in front of him, looking at his wing that now sported a scratched patch of metal instead of the purple face; they were apparently debating the reason for Thundercracker's action.

* * *

><p><strong>Surprise<strong>

Prowl got into yet another bout of argument with Sideswipe about the Seekers' surprising action as he got them back to the cage. From up close the new one looked tense, afraid but angry at the same time, watching them carefully, as though he understood their words. He was tensing anxiously when the toughliner who slagged his back got close but looked like listening to Prowl more.

"He seems quite aware of his situation… and I do wonder how much he understands us now?"

"Probably nothing."

But Sideswipe's derisive statement surprisingly drew an indignant screech from the Seeker that made them look his way. It was like he reacted to what the red twin said…

"Do you understand us?" – Prowl was willing to test the newcomer. Their Seekers never gave any sign that they could understand casual talk between mechs other than the command words and he was curious. The answering nod surprised them both, enough for Sideswipe to ask it again, not really believing to his optics. But the nod was there again, and unmistakably as an answer to the question. Sideswipe wasn't having any of it though.

"Hey there; if you understand, tell me what we were talking just then!"

The dark helm nodded again, the soft trills pausing as the Seeker seemingly composed his answer wordlessly. Then the shackled servos did their best to point to Thundercracker, then to his own wing sporting the bare patch, followed by scratching motions on the ground - and the greatest shock to them, a little gesture, the servos opening in a questioning, debating motion. Then the Seeker bobbed his helm to the side and looked straight into the red twin's shocked optics. It was Prowl who first gathered his wits enough to speak again:

"Well, I believe that was conclusive. I take it that you cannot speak."

A very cautious, guarded look preceded the short shake of the helm. For almost a breem the two mechs stood by the cage, silently thinking over just what this would mean. It was certainly new. Finally Prowl spoke up again, wanting to know more.

"Can you tell me your designation?"

The Seeker thought for a klik, but finally gave them another shake of the helm accompanied with a sad trill. Prowl understood in a way – designations are not easy to express with gestures and especially not so with such a limited way the Seeker had at the moment.

"If you understand what… no, it will be better if we talk later. I will try to convince Red Alert and Ironhide that the restraints are not necessary so you can express more." – he thought that the complex sentence with names was too much for the Seeker and the bemused glance proved him right. They left the hangar with Sideswipe unusually quiet and Prowl knew that he was deeply disturbed by the developments; the frontliner usually took things easy, but the sudden revelation of the Seeker was more than he could handle. He was surprised too, not as much as the twin, but enough to awaken in him all the old doubts and conscience.

The little exchange interested many mechs, reacting in many ways to it; including the two Seekers in the next cage, who watched it with an interest bordering on shock. In their imprecise, wandering songs it took quite a long time for Starscream to explain even the concept of a word-based language and even longer to convince the pair that the commands that they identified with actions were in fact such words. It was the only thing they could relate to and even that was hard for them to grasp, especially as explanations were severely limited by their place and circumstances. The other two Seekers were let out occasionally to play in the hangar, and they brought some of their toys to him to show; had his servos be free, he'd've loved to explore them, as they were like the things in Shockwave's lab, the ones he learned a lot from, designed initially to teach sparklings. As it was they sang more to each other, telling their stories, their memories – unlike with mechs, these stories were less about facts and more like how they experienced them.

* * *

><p><strong>Who are you?<strong>

It took Prowl not one but two orns to convince the paranoia department that the Seeker won't attack them at the moment they take off the restraints, but by that time the little recording made a full circle among the Ark crew, stirring up the long debate about their aerial force and drawing a crowd into their hangar that made all three Seekers tense and anxious. When he walked into the hangar and saw the easily dozen mechs eagerly watching the uneasily warbling Seekers, he knew that this way they would get no results at all. So he shooed out all the audience, save for Bumblebee who could get on with the Seekers well, including calming them down, and Ironhide who insisted on being there, 'just in case'. He brought a number of objects to help and a big drawing pad as well. As they approached the cage the Seekers visibly tensed; Ironhide didn't enjoy their trust in general. It was going to be difficult.

"We will take off your restraints." – he told the Seeker, carefully watching him for reaction. "Will you attack if I go in the cage?"

A measuring glance towards Ironhide from those unfathomable red optics that lasted a klik; and then a firm shake of the dark helm. Prowl trusted him enough and didn't miss his spot-on evaluation as to who consisted the greatest threat to him. He opened the cage and slowly, carefully took off the handcuffs, letting the Seeker's servos free for the first time since his capture. Ironhide was glowering at the Seeker, waiting him to make any move, before Prowl left the cage – but he very deliberately stayed still. Only after he was alone again did he lift the servos, and started to pick at his various joints, apparently for debris that got into them. It must have frustrated him to no end not to be able to clean them out; Prowl knew that the Seekers hated being dirty and spent a lot of time with preening, mostly each other. He decided that when things got better he would introduce the Seeker to the joys of a washrack – if the other two were any indication, he'd love it.

"So, we were talking about factions last time. A question: Are you a Decepticon now?"

The Seeker answered with a firm nod. Ironhide reacted with a bitten off 'toldyouso', and the red glance rested on him for a klik before returning his attention to Prowl.

"If you are a Decepticon, you want to kill us, right?"

The answer they got was confusing to say at least; it started as a nod, turned into a helmshake, and involved the servos gesturing emphatically towards the other cage, the removed logo on his wings, and the empty places on his arms, where the guns used to be. Finally, one clawtip rose to his helm in a gesture that Prowl took for indicating thinking. It was certainly not an easy answer. Ironhide broke into his musing, simplifying the question.

"You are trained to kill Autobots, right?"

A silent but firm nod with a defiant flash of red.

"Only in battles?"

A bit more hesitantly, but he still nodded, one shoulder strut slightly rising in a mute expression of uncertainty. Justified, in Prowl's opinion; his training probably didn't involve any other scenario involving Autobots.

"What about now?"

The Seeker looked at Ironhide like asking if he was crazy, almost sneering. He pointed to himself, flexed the claws towards Prowl in an aggressive gesture, pointed to Ironhide's guns, clearly charged and ready, and lifted the servos in surrender. Prowl almost laughed, while Bumblebee actually did so, interpreting the mime the same way.

"Ironhide, he is right. Basically he told you that he is not suicidal. It doesn't mean anything, only that he can evaluate the situation."

"That is not what I meant!"

"I know… but he doesn't. I think grammar and especially implied meaning is not his forte."

"Okay then, how to ask what we mean?"

"Approach it from another way…" – Prowl turned back towards the Seeker. – "Do you want to become an Autobot?"

The answering shrug was not encouraging, but the Seeker suddenly became entangled with a trilling match with the other two. They were watching the proceedings interestedly, and Starscream tried to keep passing them the gist of it, so that they could add their input. After a few kliks of chirping and warbling he turned back to Prowl, sought some faction logos among the markers that Prowl brought and started to mime again. Laying out two red ones, he pointed them to the other Seekers, while a purple marker signified himself. Then brought the three logos together in a triangle, and put an Autobot face onto his marker. To stress the number, he lifted three fingers up, folding the two thumbs inward. Then he turned the markers face-down so the triangle remained but the faction avatars became grey pieces of metal.

"Do you mean that the Trine is more important than your faction?"

A firm nod and trilling from the other two. Thundercracker also attempted a nod, interpreting it as _assent/confirm_.

"And to become a trine with them, you would be an Autobot?"

Nodding again, he pointed to the three grey markers turning them a few times face up and down.

"How do you become Trine? By mating?"

His answering screech was accompanied by laughing trills from the other cage. After a firm helmshake, he flapped his wings, pointing upwards, to the high windows, showing the blue sky and lifting three claws again.

"No way! We can't let them out together, just like that!" – Ironhide was adamant. The Seeker blew a sad, frustrated trill towards the others – it strongly reminded Prowl to Ironhide's 'Itoldyouso', like he was telling his friends that their wish would never be fulfilled. His glare to Ironhide was also the angrier that he's so far seen from the Seeker.

"Exactly what are you afraid of?"

"They would get away and later even attack any of us on patrol or anywhere else alone. Or the humans."

"I think Thundercracker at least would never leave us – I have seen it long ago. As for the others… we do have their controllers, if you remember?"

"They can smash them if they want to – this one certainly would." – they both looked at the Seeker, realizing that even if he didn't know that fact, they have just given him the information. His glance back was unreadable, but it might just had a touch of smugness in it. Or he was imagining things…

"By the way… can you tell your designation now?"

The Seeker started to search among the objects that Prowl brought, and after a while he spotted a picture that he showed towards the tactician. It was a night sky with planets and stars and the flier put a clawtip onto a small yellow dot, looking at him expectantly.

"Star?"

A nod and a single finger lifted up, like telling him that it was not all. He screeched once that surprised them both and drew a laughing fit from the other cage. He glowered to the other Seekers, hissing something, and screamed again, just a short, obviously deliberate one to the Autobots, stressing the staticky, rasping voice that he had.

"Screech?"

Angry helmshake.

"Cry?"

Even angrier hiss. Another scream, longer this time.

"Scream?"

"Starscream?" – it was Bumblebee putting it together and the Seeker nodded satisfied.

"Strange designation…"

Starscream shrugged, pointing to a Decepticon marker, still lying around. He also pointed to Thundercracker, like telling them that his was a strange one as far as he was concerned. The blue Seeker hissed back to him, flexing his wings in a sort of an answer. It caused Starscream to hitch up his wings high, emit some shrill notes and try to stare down the bigger jet – not an easy thing, crouching as he was and smaller anyway. Obviously, their attention turned towards each other and not the Autobots and it was Bumblebee who guessed the reason.

"They look like contesting each other. Prowl, do you know if they had some sort of an order in their trines?"

"I believe so. That might be what they are doing now."

"It looks like posturing… or strutting even." – Bumblebee laughed softly, having seen similar behaviour with humans, although they usually acted similarly for mating purposes.

"Right. I think it is the best if we let them get used to each other, before deciding anything else about flying and such." – Prowl turned to the Seeker again, pointing to the other cage – "Do you want to go to the others?"

A firm nod and some happy trills answered to him.

"Will you fight with them?"

A definite helmshake and again, he pointed to outside before flexing his claws. Apparently the small space was not a proper place for fighting, not an ideal answer but good enough for now. Decided, Prowl opened the smaller cage again, while Ironhide covered the Seeker ostentatiously with his guns. He gestured the flier to come out, and as he slowly, cautiously inched out from the cage, watching Ironhide all the time, motioned him towards the other cage. Once in there the three Seekers broke out in loud warbling and fervent touching, like they completely forgotten their audience. Prowl decided to give them time for their incessant talking and told everyone to leave them alone as much as possible.

* * *

><p><strong>Fight or flight<strong>

The Seekers continued their singing prattle and mutual preening for the next few orns, mainly undisturbed by the Autobots who only brought them energon sometimes, but let them alone for the most part. The security was more strict around them than usual; Prowl didn't want any such incident as the one that left their cage open and the Seekers to run around in the Ark; or even themselves fighting in there. But they didn't seem to mind, as all three of them were more interested in each other than in the Autobots. The mechs watching them didn't notice the sharp, short flickers of glances from Starscream that surreptitiously checked every movement in or near their hangar, nor have they known anything about what the other two Seekers told him about the Ark and the mechs on it. He behaved controlled, restrained, almost meek when Autobots were around, but quite the opposite with the other two Seekers, clearly dominating them both, despite being smaller and alone. It never came to fighting, but at first there was some posturing, staring and trilling 'matches' between the blue and the tricolored fliers, while Skywarp usually took the role of a spectator, clearly uninterested in the leadership issues.

But they were growing restless, Prowl was saw it clearly, and some kind of a decision soon had to be made as to whether trust him or not to let them out. No matter the big hangar and the windows, the Seekers never stood more than a few orns inside, grounded; it was usually a punishment and he didn't want them to think of that. He argued a lot with Optimus Prime, who was undecided in the matter and Ironhide, who was the one most against trusting in the Con Seeker. The main problem was that the Seekers considered humans as prey and if they were to let them fly freely, it could turn into a disaster easily in the heavily populated country. Their deliberation was broken by the Decepticon alert – since it was more than a decacycle since their last raid, it wasn't surprising to have them attack somewhere.

"Shall we take the Seekers?"

"Ours, I presume."

"Yes sir, Thundercracker and Skywarp."

"Yes, we should."

"I'm curious how Starscream will react to it."

"Red Alert is on monitor duty and he can keep an optic on the hangar."

Prowl left the handling of the Seekers to Bumblebee and started to run the scenarios for the upcoming engagement in his battle computer. Decepticons were sighted in two places at the same time and they haven't got enough information to decide which one was the feint and which one the main attack. He quickly commed to Bumblebee, to send the two Seekers to the coordinates of the attacks to gather some visual information before they could move out. It took them a breem only to reach the closer scene and Prowl saw that only some of the Stunticons were wreaking havoc in a small human town, causing much panic but little actual damage; he sent the Protectobots there and relayed to Optimus the information that the other place had to be the main attack.

By the time they reached the dam the Seekers were already circling overhead, Thundercracker taking potshots at the appearing Decepticons. It promised to be like every other battle lately, Prowl thought as he started to map out the scene and direct the Autobots into position – although he couldn't really imagine how they could steal enough energon from it to make the attack worth. First they had to make sure that no human hostages were in the building – a task for their human allies – and then they could attack the dam from one of its access roads, forcing the Cons out from the structures that could serve as cover. But it didn't go quite that way. As soon as they moved closer the trap was sprung; from the buildings behind another group of Decepticons appeared, catching the Autobots between them; and to make matters worse, the Con Seekers strafed them from above the dam lake, where no cover existed whatsoever, catching up some of the minibots and dropping them down, far out into the river. Such a drop wouldn't kill them probably, but it would cause damage, and take them out from the battle for as long as they couldn't make their way back.

It was fast becoming a rout, he thought, directing them all to go forward; the distinct absence of the plasma cannon's deep roar ahead told them that Megatron was either not there or laying low for some reason. Given his personality, the latter scenario got a very low probability. Optimus was ahead already, agreeing with his assessment, scattering the first Decepticons appearing in his way, while he ordered Thundercracker to cover their rear and Skywarp to attack the same group. Looking back, Prowl saw Skywarp playing one of his favorite games, fading in and out among the Cons, messing up as many as he could, spoiling their aims, clawing out optics – all in all causing little damage but much chaos. He even trilled triumphantly, growing careless, until Megatron rose up behind him and caught one of his wings; before he could warp away, he jerked it with a tearing sound. Skywarp screamed loud and disappeared, Thundercracker keening as he saw it happening, firing his weapons at the gunformer and taking off in a seemingly random direction.

They got through the dam with only a few casualties, turning the rout into an orderly retreat, and holing up in the same structures that the Con's used for cover at the beginning. Ratchet was so busy with field patching those who were most seriously injured that he forgot to even cursing at them for being shot. The twins managed to force down one of the Con Seekers while another got shot and all three disappeared to somewhere. The rest were put down one by one, until after a tense joor of fighting, they managed to gain an upper hand again in the battle, including defusing an attempt to burst the dam by an explosive charge. Even so, Optimus was secretly quite glad when at the end they heard Megatron ordering a gleeful retreat; not only they managed to steal a lot of energon, but they caused quite a lot of damage to the Autobots, meaning that he could rightfully call it a victory.

Skywarp, when he felt the terrible pain in his wing, didn't think; by reflex he teleported away, without a direction, driven by just the urgent need to be somewhere, no, anywhere else. Only when the gunfire and shouting went missing did he look around. He didn't get far, as his instinctive sense of direction informed him and it was soon proven by his mate appearing in the sky and transforming before landing beside him, servos already caressing his shoulder. _Worry/pain/query_ flowed from him and he answered with a whimpering _wing/torn/fly/negative_. His wing was still there, that much he felt through the pain that spread from it, but it was badly injured. _Battle/need/back/query_ was the blue Seeker's next question adding _Autobot/medic/help_, and he answered with a wordless teleport back to the battleground. While he stayed to the side, unable to contribute, loosing energon from the damaged wing, Thundercracker went back to his duty, firing on the retreating Decepticons.

When they all got back to the Ark there were a lot of mechs awaiting for the medics to fix them and none remembered to check on the Seekers straight away. Prowl was one of the injured too, and sent to medical recharge by Ratchet before he could think of it, and the rest of the officers who weren't damaged seriously were swamped in duties with the Autobots, the humans asking help and reports. When Prowl awakened the next cycle he went down straight away to the hangar – but it was empty of Seekers, the cage door open and the outside door as well. He commed Ironhide, but he was still out too; Optimus, his next contact didn't remember who handled the Seekers in the previous day. Bumblebee only remembered Skywarp going down and disappearing, along with Thundercracker.

"I thought that they got back to the Ark after that."

"Negative. Optimus tells that he saw Thundercracker firing at Cons afterwards."

"But where are they then? And how did Starscream get out?"

"If noone gave them an order to return, they should be back there still, especially Skywarp injured – and they are now out of range for the controllers. As for the cage… Red Alert is going through the security footage now." – Prowl inspected the cage door, and noted interestedly that it showed no sign of being forced; whoever opened it did either with the code or in other, nonviolent way.

_::Red Alert to Prowl. You'll have to see this for yourself; but your not-so-little winged friend opened the lock on the cage, did the same with the hangar door, and escaped.::_


	3. Part III

**Note**: plain _Italics_ is Seeker-song, while ::_comm_::

**Warning:** some violence

* * *

><p><strong>Part III.<strong>

** Decisions, decisions…**

Skywarp was whimpering quietly in his mate's embrace. His self-repair stopped the energon leaks, but it couldn't heal the huge tear that left the left wing dangle by only a few strained wires and the partially ruined joint. He was far too weak from the energon loss to warp anywhere, fly anywhere or do anything. Thundercracker couldn't help him, only held the torn wing so it wouldn't strain the remaining connection to his body; there was no way he could take him back to the Ark alone. In the chaos of the retreat, nobody gave them any orders, the Decepticons also withdrew and he was suspiciously watching the returning humans who have yet to notice them where they were, wedged and hidden between two ruined structures. Sooner or later the organics would find them… and Thundercracker couldn't think of anything of what would happen then or what would they do. He only knew that he had to stay with Skywarp. The Autobots would surely notice them missing and come back for them…?

But they were found not by searching humans or angry Autobots. A sleek plane landed in front of them, transforming into the tricolored Seeker, quickly joining them in the secluded place. A trilling _Autobost/return/Seekers/missing/query_ drifted quietly from him, but by the time he finished it, he already noticed Skywarp's injury. They answered him anyway, the _wing/hurt/fly/negative_ and the _medic/need/energon_ didn't paint a pretty picture. The blue Seeker insisted on _back/Autobot/medic_, but Starscream didn't like the idea; he was sure that after just escaping from the cage he wouldn't be welcomed back like the other two. His hard, harsh _Autobot/cage/bad_ didn't leave any doubt in them of his opinion and the _wing/heal/time_ wasn't well received by Thundercracker. The two Seekers stood facing each other, wordless hisses and blazing optics confronting aggressively, driven by the emerging rivalry as well as differing opinions. They were far from being a trine yet, those bonds have just started to tentatively form during their orns together and they would need a lot more to complete them. One of those things would have to be to decide the trine leader and as things were, any confrontation could bring that out, into a real fight.

But it could not come about until one of them was hurt. Skywarp's condition was such that it teetered at the edge of what his self-repair might, in the best of circumstances could heal in time – time which they did not have without energon. Starscream found a length of a cable in the rubble and bound it around the wing to fasten it securely to his body, but he knew no more of repairs than any of them. He still argued with Thundercracker about going back to the Autobots or trying to fend for themselves; but the two Seeker who have been on Earth longer told Starscream that the planet lacked suitable prey that would supply them with energon. The only energon was with the Autobots or the Decepticons – and neither of them considered going to the latter seriously. At the end though Starscream gave in and the decision made they lifted Skywarp together and carefully took off towards the Autobot base.

* * *

><p><strong>Coming back<strong>

Prowl and the other officers watched the security recording fascinated and more than a bit ashamed. The Seeker quite clearly had little problem with the simple lock on the cage, the sharp clawtips hit the proper buttons unerringly as the preset code demanded; they rotated a few simple passes for the cage, being sure that neither of their Seekers could use them. Apparently Starscream was familiar with Cybertronian glyphs as well not only the spoken language – at least enough so he could spy the codes as they'd opened and closed the cage-door a few times and use them to escape. He took a few of the markers and toys too, but they couldn't even guess what for, opened the outside door the same way and was gone. The outside camera saw him transforming and flying away, roughly to the same direction of the last battle by the dam.

After watching the recording, Prowl set out with the twins who had already been repaired, to find their Seekers whom they thought to be at the battlefield or nearby. He expected no trouble from their pair, but he warned the twins about Starscream who might be around and whose reaction he couldn't extrapolate. He could be anything from violent till friendly; even his going back to the Nemesis was not out of question, albeit unlikely. Arriving to the battleground, they found human crews clearing the debris away and repairing the dam's structures and electrical lines; but they found no Seekers anywhere. The humans hearing that they sought the Seekers showed them some of the characteristic three-toed footprints between two standing buildings and Prowl decided that there were enough of them there to account for three Seekers, not only their two. It meant that Starscream has found his kin faster and it was anyone's guess where they went to; and being fliers, they could not even track them.

As they started to go back to the Ark though, Prowl got a comm from Ironhide, alerting him that the Seekers have returned to the Ark but not peacefully. Driving back with their top speed they arrived to see the situation too, a sort of a standoff between the Seekers and Ironhide. The three jets were standing in front of the open hangar door, Thundercracker and Starscream basically carrying Skywarp between them, and the tricolored Seeker was hissing and screeching angrily towards Ironhide, who was standing in front of them with his cannons charged and ready.

_::Ironhide, stop it!::_

_::No, Prowl, I won't let that Con Seeker in the Ark again. He can open the cage, he can kill us all in recharge.::_

_::That is preposterous. He could have done it while he was here – but he didn't.::_

_::He can still do it, and corrupt our Seekers too. If you don't want me to deactivate him, tell him that he must go away.::_

_::They came back voluntarily. It is our chance to gain their trust...::_

_::That Con Seeker will never gain my trust. You are naïve if you think you can retrain him.::_

_::Because I don't want to retrain him. He is more intelligent than that. I want to talk to him.::_

_::That is even more naïve.::_

_::It is logical. If a defected Con was to behave this way, giving up his freedom to help an injured comrade back, it would be a proof for sincerity and you wouldn't greet him with guns pointed at him.::_

_::But they are Seekers...::_

The Seekers had no idea about comm discussions and Starscream quickly grew impatient about nothing happening and took a step forward, dropping Skywarp's limp arm and straightened fully to face of the angry weapons specialist and his arm cannons. Flashing fully elongated claws towards him, wings high but defensively plastered to his back, he continued to hiss and screech angrily at him but didn't attack – Prowl understood his stance perfectly; he was telling Ironhide to back off while hiding his own indecision. He was fairly sure that neither would back off on their own.

"Ironhide, stop it. Starscream, please." - it was just a small chance of the situation not developing into a fight that would not have a positive outcome. – "Stand down please."

After a few tense kliks it was ironically Starscream who proved to be the more intelligent and stepped backwards a few paces, relaxing his claws and drooping his wings slightly. He warbled a quick _away/back/wait_ to the other Seekers, never looking anywhere else but to Ironhide, and suddenly took off, transforming and flying away into the darkening sky. Thundercracker looked after him forlornly, holding the unconscious Skywarp and trilling him softly. When Ironhide moved, taking the cannons offline, the blue Seeker cast a rare, angry glance at him that made the weapons specialist take a step back and growl angrily – but Prowl stepped between them and led the Seekers inside, calling Ratchet there as well.

* * *

><p><strong>Ghost<strong>

Bumblebee and Prowl stood at the hangar corner, watching the Seekers in the cage. Ever since they returned, they behaved strange, different. On the surface it was hardly noticeable, but they, who knew them most saw the subtle signs of being more distant, more sad – less playful and obedient. And quite obviously missing the third Seeker. Skywarp was hardly ever singing now, only warbled quietly to his mate, sad trills showing his disappointment; Thundercracker was little better off, slightly calmer as usual, but still not showing any of his usual liveliness. They were much colder to the mechs appearing in the hangar too; even to Prowl and Bumblebee, who used to be their favorites but now ignoring them even when they let them out to play. Even the free time hadn't got the same allure to them as before; they came out, picked up the toys, but there was no joy of chasing the bouncing balls around, no laughing trills and absolutely no getting close to any of the mechs for a cuddle or pet. In short they were depressed and resenting their Keepers almost as much as eons ago, when they were trained.

::_Check the leftmost window unobtrusively_:: – Bumblebee commed him, not wanting the Seekers to pick it up with their sharp hearing.

Prowl continued to look at the Seekers but shifted his stance slightly to angle his optic sensors upwards. The high windows were black with Earth's night, the stars invisible in the hangar's inner lighting. But in the middle of the window, two bright red gems were visible, beside each other, moving together – and they were most definitely not stars or artificial light sources.

::_Starscream_?::

::_Must be. Ark doesn't have outside visual recorders there but those red spots can't be much else. A drone perhaps...?::_

_:: A normal drone can't go up there. Maybe we should mount a camera somewhere that can check that spot.::_

_::I think I saw this once before. About three orns ago, but I wasn't sure – it disappeared fast.::_

_::I don't think he comes in daylight. Humans would raise alarms if they noticed such an aircraft in their airspace.::_

_::Only at night. And our Seekers know about him. They don't look up but they stay unmoving and seem to listen.::_

_::Yes, I agree. Their posture is that of intense listening.::_

_::…and waiting.::_

_::waiting for what?::_

_::I don't know. But they too recognized Starscream as more advanced and a natural leader.::_

_::I have seriously underestimated him.::_

_::We all have. But he was a Decepticon, he had to learn to hide how clever he was. How do you think he became smart?::_

_::Either random mutation in his CPU – or Shockwave.::_

_::Neither is a nice possibility.::_

_::The latter is more probable.::_

_::What I don't really understand is how can he survive without energon. He obviously didn't go back to the Cons and there is no natural energon on Earth.::_

_::He had reserves for maybe three to five orns if he was deliberately sparing it. It has been 10 orns since he escaped. You are right, he had to find a source.::_

_::Can he use solar energy to spare energon?::_

_::Not unlimited, no. Unless he goes into stasis laying on the sun. They can only spare some that way.::_

The next day-cycle Bumblebee went out to the mountainside and installed a small, camouflaged camera that looked onto the top part of the hangar walls. It was equipped with night vision too and wired into the security monitor system, watched and recorded all times. For two more orns it showed nothing and they didn't notice any change in the Seeker pair's behaviour either. On the third orn, again in the dark period the monitor showed a jet gliding down soundlessly from above, transforming, grabbing the window's frame and settling on the wall to peer inside. The camera recorded very soft trilling that continued until a mech went into the hangar and resumed when he left. He was there for more than a joor and the inner cameras showed the Seekers listening intently all the while, occasionally trilling back; but keeping their posture and rarely looking up.

The next cycle, Hound brought back a ruined mechanical contraption from his patrol that he found near the Ark area, half hidden among the desert rocks. He noticed it because it was of Cybertronian make, its metallic compounds are obviously different from the human ones, glaringly noticeable to the scout's finely tuned sensors. Since it had no spark chamber, they identified it as some kind of a drone that Shockwave and sometimes Soundwave used for reconnaissance, spying and various other purposes. The drone was ruined almost beyond recognition, but no Autobot claimed of destroying it; and it was almost impossible for any humans, as there were no weapons' marks on it, only mechanical damage. Prowl slowly turned the remains of the drone in his servos.

"I think it indicates that Starscream was a result of one of Shockwave's experiments."

"How so?" – Bumblebee was curious about Prowl's reasoning as the statement seemed quite far-fetched from a simple, offlined drone.

"The drone was destroyed mechanically and drained. Cons have no reason to do so, we didn't do it, but a seeker could easily manage to deactivate it; he could both sense it from above and tear it apart with his claws. Although the drones don't have a spark, they are powered by energon, and as such resemble old Cybertronian wildlife that supplied the Seekers with fuel before the war. Someone familiar with Shockwave's drones should know that fact and recognize that the Cons use them here, on Earth. A simple Seeker could not tell apart a drone and a small Cybertronian."

"So he survives on Decepticon drones? Wow. Never would've thought of that."

"With this he also helps us – although I am sure it was not his intention, but still, every Con spy drone that he destroys is a bonus for us. They are quite hard to detect."

"Tell that to Ironhide, maybe he stops for a klik and thinks about it…"

"Unlikely. I believe that he harbors a deeper resentment towards them for some reason. But we should discuss it in the next meeting. Others might be more interested than him."

* * *

><p><strong>Stranger in a strange land<strong>

Starscream warbled an _away/back/wait_ to Thundercracker, shot a look of pure hate and loathing to Ironhide and jumping to the air transformed and took off. He wasn't expecting the Autobots to receive him with joy, but the charged cannons and the yells were even worse that he thought. He understood Ironhide's 'go away' too, and when Prowl arrived and couldn't make the other Autobot to lower the weapons he decided that he had enough of them. He'd rather starve free than go back to yet another cage or be shot on the spot for no reason. Besides, the planet looked a good place for flying, it had ample lighting from a sun and a smallish moon, clear air, no acid rains – although far too much water and even more organics, even up in the air.

He flew in the darkening sky for a while, loving the freedom of wings after being caged up for so long, enjoyed not having any of the hated devices on him to tell him what to do and punish him if he deviated from it. He flexed his wings with maneuvers and gave them a workout that was pure joy; until he remembered that his energon reserves were limited and he should not waste them on joyflying. As the night fell – the first he has ever seen on this planet – he found a cave in a nearby mountain range for recharge. It also had a tiny organic occupant, like everywhere on the planet but it was no match for an adult Cybertronian Seeker, even though sadly it gave no energon either, only a sticky, red fluid that smelled until it dried into brownish stains on the rocks. But he was still good for a few orns before he had to worry about fuel, so he wasn't worried.

After the recharge, when the planet's sun was up, he sunned his smallish solar panels to gather free energy and pondered on his options on the ledge before the cave. If the planet really has no natural energon and such prey as they hunted back home then it could exist only in two places; with Decepticons or Autobots. The Nemesis was quite hard to sneak in, being underwater, and if they caught him in the attempt the punishment would be quite harsh. The Autobots' base was marginally approachable but they might expect him to turn up. The best chance would be to find the Decepticons in one of their attempts to make energon from the human sources and steal some of that in the chaos of the battle; but how would he know where they'd attack? He would have to follow the Autobots when they left the Ark to intercept their enemies.

The only problem with that plan was that just after one such battle they wouldn't have one any time soon; probably not in the time-frame he'd need the energon. Lying on the sun as he did would prolong his time when the energon would become necessary, but not indefinitely; and staying in one place would increase anyone's chances of discovering him from humans till Cybertronians. Trilling sadly Starscream lay on the sun, half-dreaming of flying with a blue and a black shape, cutting through the sharp air together, sing together, cuddle together, mate… and he whimpered sadly when the mountain's shadow fell on him, woke him up and shattered all his pleasant dreams.

In a few of the planet's days he found his rhythm; catching the sun on the ledge until it fell behind the mountain, while dreaming of his would-be Trine; discovering the surroundings from up high while the sun was setting – and slowly, cautiously getting closer and closer during the dark to the Autobot place with his prospective trine-mates. It took some nights to discover and investigate every nook and cranny around the ship, watching out for dangers, artificial devices and Autobots who came and went through the many openings of the base. It happened during one such observation that he saw a small, squat, four-legged shape scurrying towards the Ark in a path previously not used by any of them; and emerging the same night, leaving in obvious secrecy.

He decided to follow the shape; it wasn't like any of the Autobots that he could identify by their shapes and colours, and wore no Autobot logo either; and after a joor of following it, he saw that it was going towards the Nemesis. A Decepticon then, maybe a spy – but the black shape was familiar from before his time on Earth and no Decepticons were that small. With a sudden decision he descended quietly on it, and landing on top of its backside, he tore its head off with a single, vicious movement. It was deactivated before it could make a single sound – and Starscream drained its energon, lukewarm and weak, bad quality, but fuel nevertheless. When it was drained he tore into its chassis, and finding no spark-chamber he finally knew what it was; Shockwave used these drones incessantly for every job in his lab and around Darkmount; even the warriors hated them and often deactivated some of them just for fun. If they had these here and used them to spy on the Autobots, then he would have a regular energon-source; small they were but one would fuel him for some of the planet's rotations if he was careful. He could only hope that Shockwave was not around, only his drones… even the thought caused him to shudder and he banished it quickly.

In a few more orns, he dared to go even closer to the Autobot base, watching the hangar that was his target from higher up of the volcano's side, carefully checking the area for danger, noting the times when the Autobots moved out and back; fortunately none of them used the hangar exit that was probably only for the Seekers. One night, late when the mechs usually were in recharge he quietly glided down from his vantage spot and caught the edge of the window, looking into the dimly lit place. He saw the two Seekers, huddled together in their cage and couldn't stop a small, sad chirp escaping his vocalizer. He froze immediately, frantically checking the inside of the hangar for mechs and the outside, behind him for any danger – but nothing has moved in either places.

He calmed down and while watching out, started a bit louder, warbling _up/listen/important_ to the Seekers inside so that they might hear it and notice him. It took him three repeats before Thundercracker lifted his helm up and bobbed it to the side in a gesture of listening before he trilled a soft _where/who/query_ back randomly. He trilled _Starscream/up/sky_ to him and he looked up, seeing his frame in the light coming from the inside and his red eyes above. He quickly trilled _stay/move/negative_ and _Starscream/hide/danger_ to him, and he seemed to understand; he looked towards the door, checking for mechs and not moving from his position, woke up his mate. They talked quietly for a long time, Starscream telling them his adventures and about the drones that supplied him with energon, while Thundercracker told him about the mechs, what he knew of them and telling him that they would go flying in a few days.

From then on they sang together as often as he dared to visit them; and the Seekers' mood has improved too by knowing that he survived and was living free. He tried to convince them to escape with him when the Autobots let them out but they didn't dare – the controllers were on their collars during such flights and they didn't let them fly far from the Ark. Besides as Thundercracker reasoned, the occasional drone was enough prey and fuel for one Seeker but not for three. Even so, the orn when they were let out to fly he awaited them nearby, and joined them for their first flight together; going high, over the cloud cover they were invisible from the watching Autobots.

They raced high in the sky, three vapor trails pulling impossibly straight lines onto the blue dome of air, Starscream slowly edging ahead of them, the fastest both in straight line and in maneuvers as they started to twist, turn and roll to trick each other. Skywarp spiced up their paths with sudden and unpredictable jumps that caused many last-klik swerves to avoid collisions, causing laughing trills and angry screeches in equal measure. The two Seekers slowly realized that Starscream was faster than any of them and better trained in air maneuvers too. After their first flight together, Thundercracker was half convinced to accept him as trine leader, but his pride still wouldn't let him; he was still bigger and stronger, and they would have to fight it out.

* * *

><p><strong>Sentient?<strong>

"As we finished with the scheduled topics, Prowl, I believe you've asked to have one more item for this meeting?"

"Yes, Prime, I have."

The officers of the Earth-based Autobots sat around the table in the usual meeting room, at the end of the periodic meeting. It didn't have a lot on the agenda, as the last groon was fairly quiet, the Decepticons keeping a low profile, while the Ark crew itself was in good health, and in general fairly content with life, aside from the occasional prank from Sideswipe. It also meant that the officers were all in a good mood and only slightly bored by the meeting. Until Prowl introduced his item for discussion and went over some recordings, explaining them in detail.

"As you see from the presentation, I want to bring up the question of our Seekers' – and I am including Starscream too - situation. As you have indubitably observed, his behaviour seriously questions the ruling made a long ago on Cybertron that declared Seekers to be legally animals, in the same category as turbofoxes or gyrofalcons. In fact he quite clearly possesses intelligence, displayed cunning, planning, emotions – any number of attitudes that define a sentient being. The other Seekers also display similar attitudes in a lesser extent. And we, as Autobots live by the most fundamental tenet that says 'Freedom is the right of sentient beings'…"

"Hold on, Prowl." – Ironhide was irritated and not bothering to cover it – "We have no obligation for a Con Seeker, however devious he is; and ours were classified as clever but non-intelligent long ago."

"And many contested that ruling even back then, if you care to remember."

"Still it was passed." – Optimus Prime didn't hide the fact that the recordings that Prowl showed, the explanations and the compassion that his normally unemotional SIC showed seriously shook up his comfortable beliefs about the Seekers. – "I must admit that Starscream's behaviour was clearly intelligent – watching it, I have no doubts. Save for the lack of talking, which can be the result of different vocalizers, he behaved like any of us would in his situation."

"They do have different vocal instruments and it would take quite a while for them to learn Cybertronian sounds. They could, but… well, it has never been tried as far as I know." – Ratchet, like Prime was quite shocked by the Seekers' suddenly changing image. He has never been particularly interested in them or in their supposed intelligence and the proof took him by surprise. – "But I gather that Starscream was likely a result of an experiment by Shockwave – in which case it is not the Seekers who are intelligent, but he alone. If he was here, I could perform some tests, make some guesses as to the nature of those experiments, but as it is not the case… I can't add anything else."

"Ratchet, I want to point out that Thundercracker showed exactly the same behavioral traits as Starscream, only in a lesser degree. Skywarp too, albeit he exhibited the least of such signs of them. But the fact is, Starscream is not different from them, only more sophisticated. It is quite unlikely for example that Shockwave implanted a mech's processor into his frame, as his nature is obviously that of a Seeker. Their interactions and wish to trine-bond proves that clearly."

"What is it that you propose, Prowl? I think we can mostly accept your evidence, but what do you intend to do?"

"I propose to negotiate with Starscream and eventually with all our Seekers."

"WHAT?" – Ironhide and Red Alert were spluttering in tandem, disbelief written on their faceplates. Ratchet was bemused, Optimus Prime considering and contemplating, Jazz thoughtful but nodding slightly, as he understood Prowl's reasoning best. – "You can't be serious, Prowl. He'd tear you apart before you could say a word."

"I don't think that would be the case. He is quite calm when he has to - as he showed it earlier, even in the face of some provocation."

"What do you want to achieve by talking to him?"

"If I can get him to listen, believe in what I intend to say, he - and incidentally all three of them – could work for us, fight for us, just like now - only of their free will."

"Tall order. If you are right that they are intelligent… why would they do that? Even from Starscream, I can hardly imagine ideological reasons, or understanding why we fight the war."

"That is exactly my point, Prime. If we free them, then it would show them what we fight for without any ideological tirades. And don't forget that Earth has no energon. Starscream survives on hunting Decepticon drones for their energon, but it is far too little for three adult Seekers. They would need us to survive."

"He hunts Con drones? Why? And how do you know he does it?" – Red Alert was as always concerned about security and drones cut into that heavily, making his job that much harder. While he did not accept the fliers' intelligence fully, a Seeker who hunted those pests was all right with him.

"In the last groon we found seven of those drones around the Ark, all heavily damaged and offlined by claws and drained of energon. During this time we observed Starscream approaching the Ark, specifically the Seekers' hangar many times, talking, or rather singing to our Seekers through the windows. I want to add that he never spied on the Ark otherwise, nor have we observed him to rejoin the Decepticon forces."

"So he stays close to us for the other Seekers… I think if you can talk to him it might be possible to achieve what you said. But can you talk with him about such a complex topic?"

"I would want to try, Prime. If they are sentient – and I believe that they are – then we must. Or we foul our own ideals."

Neither of the officers could accuse Prowl with being overly emotional. Or even just being emotional for that matter. If he was so firmly behind this idea, then he had to have pretty good reasons for it, all logical and sound, not influenced by sentimentalism or mushiness. Just liking the Seekers, which they knew that he did was not a factor for the plan that he laid out to them. Even Ironhide, who was still against it, had to admit to himself that Prowl wasn't given to hasty or impetuous actions based on flimsy evidence. And Starscream did look like pretty cunning to him too – only he considered this as dangerous for them.

"Jazz? We have yet to hear your opinion on the matter."

"Prime… Ah believe that Prowl is right, we shoulda try to talk to them. So far we ordered them around but it might be that they'd listen if we just told them what we want – and that Starscream looks a prime candidate for that. I'd even volunteer fer going with Prowl to seek 'im out."

"I see. Prowl, what do you think we could offer them – and what should we ask in return?"

"I would offer energon, medical care if needed and staying in the hangar – not in cages, just the open space. For this they could fight with us in our battles and learn to leave the humans unharmed. Anything more specific is I think must be in the future."

"I'd want to have a look at his vocalizer to see if they could learn to speak. It would help a lot if we could really communicate – miming is fine just not very exact."

"That can also be a matter to discuss in the future. But at first a mutual trust must be built up." – Prowl looked hard at Ironhide – "Personal reasons should not influence our trust. If any of us have experiences with Seekers that disprove their sentience or cooperativeness, it should be told now."

"I don't have anything to tell Prowl. Only that I can't trust a Con Seeker. I know how they are trained, how ingrained the killing instinct in them. I've seen it. Cons train their Seekers to accept certain deactivation if it means that they can offline an Autobot. Intelligence just makes it more dangerous in Starscream because you will never know when he will attack."

"You presume that he retained his loyalty and that he cannot overcome his training with conscious decision."

"Yes."

"The first is disproved I think; he didn't return to them, even though he could not have hoped that we'd take him back. He rather chose almost certain starving than going back to the Nemesis. The second… I remind you when he stood unmoving, not attacking while you threatened him with your cannons – when they returned from the battlefield. In that situation a Seeker that you envision would have attacked, regardless of his own safety. Starscream did not. It shows that he could overwrite his reflexes and act as his rational thoughts dictated."

"Neither is a clear proof, if he is as intelligent as you say. He could've deceived us."

"It is proof enough for me too, Ironhide." – Optimus Prime was patient enough to listen to his officers debating the matter back and forth, but Ironhide could sometimes be called as stubborn and not letting go a topic that he felt strongly about, even in the face of logical arguments. – "I believe that Prowl produced suitable arguments for his case and he has my support, Jazz's and…" – he looked enquiringly towards Ratchet and Red Alert. Ratchet nodded, while the Security Director looked undecided; he had no other argument that Ironhide hasn't mentioned but neither was he happy with a Con Seeker being around the Ark for any reason. – "So Ratchet is for it too. That is enough for me to give Prowl a go-ahead."

"Thank you Sir. I would like Bumblebee to follow the Seeker as far as he can to discover where he stays; and to set out as soon as I can with Jazz afterwards."

They could set out the next day, as Bumblebee told him that he'd already known the Seeker's hiding place; human satellites discovered him sunning on a mountain spot and he checked it out the day before. The cave was quite far up the mountainside, not easily approachable but they didn't have to climb it; as soon as they got close the Seeker noticed them and left the ledge, flying in the opposite direction. Prowl shouted after him to wait and he wavered in his flight, slowed and suddenly landed some distance from them, clearly still hesitating whether to approach or get away from them. He didn't look happy seeing them, but Prowl noticed a certain curiosity in his glance towards him – Seekers in general were intensely curious about everything and Starscream was no exception to this for all his mistrust and cautiousness. His open approach with no weapons visible was enough to satisfy him that Prowl meant no harm and slowly they got closer to each other, Jazz keeping a bit further behind so he wouldn't scare the Seeker.

"We came to talk, Starscream." – Prowl showed the universal Cybertronian sign for peaceful greeting; both servos held open, forward and up. Even not knowing it, he hoped that the intent would come across to the Seeker. Probably it did, because he nodded and waited for him to continue, still careful, keeping a distance between them, but he crouched down to see him better.

"We want to offer you a truce, an agreement. Do you know what that is?"

Nodding, he settled down to listen more. Still vary, wings nervously fluttering, soft, staccato trills escaping his vocalizer - but staying and watching him. Prowl tried to keep his sentences simple and vocabulary easy.

"We know now that keeping your kind imprisoned is wrong. We want to offer you freedom and cooperation. We would like you to live with us but be free."

The Seeker listened carefully and when Prowl finished, he pulled out some of the markers that he took with him. He drew on the boxlike shape, crossing it out forcefully, shaking his helm and hissing angrily.

"No cage, I understand."

He pointed to the collar, raising three fingers and shook his head again.

"No collars, I get it. I thought of communicators instead if that is acceptable."

He nodded, although the movement was a bit hesitant, like he didn't completely understood the sentence; but the uncertainty soon lost its importance as suddenly weapons fire rained on them from all sides. Jazz was down, lying flat in a depression, energon pooling underneath, Starscream was blasting off without transforming, but a shot finding a vulnerable spot and he crashed back to the ground, screeching and keening in pain. Prowl tried to bring his gun to bear but he was surrounded; he shot one mech but he had no time for another as his vision gone black and he fell offline. His last thought was that how could they pay attention to the Seeker so much that the Decepticons could surprise them…

* * *

><p><strong>Choosing sides<strong>

Prowl came online with a processor-ache, feeling a few minor wounds on his chassis and a dull pain in one of his strained doorwings; servos held together with mag-cuffs and raised above his head, bearing his weight. Before opening his optic covers he heard the Seeker's painful keening, but beside it a voice that he heard before and had no particular wish to hear any time soon – Megatron's. He wasn't sure any more if opening the optic covers would be such a good idea; the place was without a doubt a Decepticon brig cell, complete with Cons who would just love to wring out of him everything he knew. Having the Autobot second in command as a prisoner was a rare bonus for them. He suddenly froze as he remembered – Jazz was shot down the last he saw, so he had to check if he too was around. Looking around he saw that he was alone in the barely lit cell, with energon bars making sure he didn't escape, even if he could somehow unlock the handcuffs. Outside, he saw the brig proper, with the other cells all deactivated bars, meaning that Jazz was probably not in any of them; if they had the spec ops mech, they'd be far more careful with him.

Almost in front of his cell he saw Megatron's back, facing away from him, wielding an energon whip that was glowing with its dangerous charge. The target of the whip was the Seeker, bound with handcuffs as well, only his were fastened to the ground, not to the ceiling, making him kneel and bend forward. His wings and back were crisscrossed with the whipmarks and Prowl saw that the wingtips were also crushed, probably by the big servo; he was keening quietly, voice staticky and scratched from the pain, trying to cower from the whip. Megatron was shouting an angry tirade at him, half of which the flier probably had no idea of, but going on about the lines of traitor, defector and the like. Prowl just couldn't watch the Seeker tortured any more and if he could help him, he would...

"He didn't defect. He escaped from us too."

Megatron turned around slowly, his angry glare shifting from the Seeker to the tactician. He wasn't pleased that he was interrupted, much less by an Autobot telling him what to do with his Seeker.

"Your turn will come Autobot, don't worry. Soundwave'll be here soon to pick your processor. And the Seeker was found in your company."

He turned back to the kneeling Seeker and growled at him, knowing that the Autobot SIC wouldn't lie, so he just lost the excuse to beat the Seeker any more. Angrily he lashed the whip once more across the shaking wings, just to show that he didn't care about the Autobot, but then turning suddenly, he stomped out of the brig. From the doorway he snarled back to the guard to take the Seeker back to its cage and he was gone, much to Prowl's relief, who fully expected to be next on the tyrant's agenda. The guard who was so far keeping a vary distance from Megatron came forward and smiling nastily, kicked the Seeker on the ground. His keening grew a bit, vocalizer still hitching but he didn't move any, until the mech released his handcuffs from the ring set into the floor, intending to herd him back to his old cage.

But Starscream was done with going back to any cages and decided that he'd rather go down fighting. The nanoklik the chain left the ring his servos were moving, deadly claws flashing, tearing out the mech's optics and vocalizer before the snarling Seeker tore into his chassis and pulled out wires, fuel-tubes, circuitry and anything he could hook his talons into. Prowl didn't know the Decepticon by name and he saw that it was not necessary to learn it any more - he would be dead soon. The Seeker looked up from his grisly work to survey the area with a look that missed little, even if it didn't understand everything; and after a few kliks he picked up the guard's rifle and shot the surveillance camera in the upper corner. His next move was to find the coded stick that guards carried to open and close handcuffs and used it on his pair, getting rid of them. Straightening up, he moved to Prowl's cell, claws almost touching the bars, drawing slight sparks from then; and he lifted a servo in a querying gesture.

"The controls for the bars should be at the guard's station." – Prowl told him, pointing it out with his optics – "There should be schematics for the active cells and switches underneath or on the touchscreen."

The Seeker circled around the small table with the monitors on it, and examined what he saw for a breem. When he finally held out a single claw and hesitantly touched the screen a few times, Prowl was feeling not a little gratitude as the glowing bars in front of him shut down. He wasn't in the very least sure that the Seeker could make sense of the controls and open his cell. Starscream then came in the cell and with the same codestick opened the tactician's cuffs as well, letting him down from the chains.

"Thank you. Do you by any chance know a way off this ship?"

Starscream nodded and pulled the unresisting Prowl after him, giving over the rifle to him. At his questioning glance, he only answered by flashing the already energon-coated claws at him. Prowl sort of understood and accepted his reasoning – he could fight with those and Prowl would be able to fare better armed with the gun. He had a little knowledge of the Decepticon ship, mainly from the spec ops mechs' successful spying missions, but far from knowing its layout in details. All Autobots knew where the brig was, as it was necessary information for rescue attempts but the Seeker didn't look like he was leading them upwards, and he knew the sunken ship had only one way out, the tower lift. Come to think of it, that would be guarded at all times.

"Where are we going? Not the tower I take it?"

A silent helmshake and a sidewise glance that told him not to take the Seeker for a fool was his only answer. They run along some corridors and hallways, trying to move quietly, but eventually it was inevitable to meet someone. Unfortunately it was not one but two mechs who turned into the corridor from a storage room of some sort and they were reacting quickly to the sight of the Seeker and an unknown mech coming their way, shouting and shooting their way. Prowl's reaction was even faster and he had his rifle out and ready, firing it at the bigger of the Decepticons and not missing either. He went down and by that time Starscream was onto them with a murderous fury, hissing and screeching while he methodically incapacitated them. In the relatively small space of the corridor his size and natural weapons – not to mention his furious attack – gave him a distinct advantage.

After the scuffle they got into a small storage room, where the Seeker pointed at the wall behind some crates, mimed shooting at it and something like moving upward… swimming?

"Behind the wall is the ocean?"

A terse nod.

"Why here?"

A mime showed him that a doorway used to be on that wall just covered up. It made sense; a small rifle that they had wouldn't be able to penetrate the outer shell of a former spaceship, but a hatch, welded shut long ago, damaged by weapon's fire might buckle enough so that the outside pressure can force it inwards. The Seeker has already started to tear the covering, a weaker plate of metal down from the wall, exposing the old hatchway.

"Can you swim? Move in water?"

A nod answered him and a pointing servo asked back.

"I can stand water for a short time but not swim."

Another mime, this time telling him to grasp his shoulder vents when they would get out. Prowl nodded and since they probably had little time – in fact he was surprised that they haven't been discovered already – started shooting the welding by the doorframe on the highest setting that the rifle could manage. He was surprised when Starscream joined him with another small gun, but realized that he must have taken it from the mechs that they encountered a few corners back. It didn't take long before the metal started to buckle under the pressure all the water outside put on it and they moved to the side, clamping close all parts of their armor that they could, holding onto the shelving that was welded to the side wall, but firing continuously.

Prowl found it an interesting coincidence that the first Decepticon appeared in the doorway at the same klik when the old hatch gave up and the water started to gush into the room. Obviously surprised and unable to hold onto anything he was swept back to the corridor, while they tried to move against the flood, towards the open waters. Soon the water-flow slowed as probably a flood-gate was closed off somewhere, stopping the inrush and he latched onto the Seeker's shoulders the best he could. He blasted off like he was flying, out through the hatch and upwards in the slowly lightening water towards the open air. The water's drag was incredible on their bodies, he felt the Seeker's engines labouring on full, and Prowl had to maintain an iron grip on his frame to stay with him, feeling the armour-plate bend under his fingers. It was almost a breem before he felt them breaking the water's surface and explode out of the water with the suddenly roaring engines and all the fluid cascading off of them in great rivulets.

The Seeker gained altitude quickly, flying faster and engines sounding more normally; and Prowl soon saw the mainland approaching. They landed soon after reaching it and Prowl scrambled off his back as soon as they touched down. Starscream didn't look good as he knelt on the ground, supporting himself on his servos as well; and Prowl suddenly remembered that while he got off lightly from his captivity, the Seeker was not so fortunate. He didn't show the pain until they had better things to do, but apparently it caught up with him when they were in relative safety. The worst thing was that he couldn't do anything for him; the injuries were not something anyone could fix without tools and knowledge – and he had neither. He tried his comm but it was probably either removed or hopelessly slagged when he was captured, so even asking for help was out of question. Cautiously, he stepped closer to the Seeker, offering a wordless apology and comfort in a way that he saw the purple Seeker doing it, by stroking the flat, uninjured part of his wing, avoiding the sensual ailerons and the crushed wingtips.

"We should go back to the Ark. You need medical attention and energon."

He shuddered once, and moved to sit on the ground, signaling him to wait and Prowl remembered the fast healing of the Seekers; every breem he could rest some of his wounds would get better. It didn't help his problem with low fuel levels; they've been captured for close to an orn, lost energon to injuries, and then to healing and Starscream would need some to get back to the Autobot base too. He was resting for almost a joor before looking up again to Prowl, watching him intently, like measuring if he could trust him now that the immediate danger was off or not. Prowl understood his concern and tried to reassure him.

"What we were talking about earlier is still valid. I came to you with the support of our command, to offer you and the other Seekers a place to stay, energon and medical care – in exchange for fighting with us. I would let you all go if you wanted to, but this world has no energon and Megatron would never let you stay free."

He had to break it into smaller sentences and add explanations, but eventually he was sure that the Seeker understood it perfectly. Prowl waited calmly and patiently until Starscream made his decision; for the first time in many thousands of vorns he felt his conscience clean of the guilt he has always felt because of the Seekers' fate. It felt indescribably right to offer him a chance, to give him the opportunity to decide his own fate instead of doing it for him, however well-meaning those actions were. It felt even better to see him nod his acceptance and see him look into his optics as an equal, a free person, instead of… a slave.


	4. Part IV

**Note**: plain _Italics_ is Seeker-song, while ::_comm_::

**Note**2: I tried to make up a kind of an 'accent' for Starscream, but it was kinda hard to do – actually the slow update was mostly thanks to this; the effect I wanted to achieve was a kind of a sibilant, hissing-screeching, hard to understand speech, but with retaining the readability of it in the fic. I hope I succeeded in it, pronunciation is my weak point, accents especially, English not being my mother tongue. Please, don't hesitate to criticize it if you feel like so; I'd really appreciate it.

* * *

><p><strong>Part IV<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>It's a long way<strong>

The way back to the Ark was quiet. Prowl drove without wanting to catch attention, while Starscream flew ahead and stayed at the top of the volcano, waiting for him to arrive. Once Prowl reached the Ark and could talk to the Prime, told him what happened; they came out together and he transformed and landed in front of them, nervous but hoping, afraid and angry, not knowing if he had made a grievous mistake or the best decision of his life. Other Autobots also came out and as they stood around them his agitation became visible; many of them, despite of the earlier talks about it were less than optimistic or outright mistrusting the Seeker. He kept turning in the circle, trilling low, nervously, half minded to lift his weapon, half trying to convince himself not to; automatically drawing closer to Prowl, the only one he so far trusted. It was the Prime who noticed the source of his nervousness and ordered everyone to leave or at least draw back a bit.

"I'm sorry, but mechs are interested. They mean no harm."

He trilled again, understanding but nevertheless thankful for the more free space that they got. Emotions roiled in him as Optimus Prime repeated what they have agreed with Prowl, and they let the other Seekers out and cut off the collars from them. Thundercracker and Skywarp were even more nervous as they didn't understand what was going on but were fearful of the mechs standing still around, vary of the attentions. He tried to explain it to them, but the _freedom/flight/friends_ got only blank stares from them; for them the only freedom they knew was their former life in the Sonic Canyons. After it, he tried to elaborate but the _cage/negative/collar/negative_ only got fear from them as reaction. It took him the rest of the day trilling, warbling and even acting things out to get at least the main points across to his fellow Seekers.

By this time only a few Autobots remained around; Jazz (who was rescued earlier, mostly unharmed, only knocked out in the attack that got the other two captured) listening to the language and recording it, Prowl to help Starscream with the explanations and Bumblebee who was simply curious about the Seekers. They spent the night in the hangar, where Hoist and Grapple quickly dismantled the cages but they couldn't do more, considering that nobody had any idea of what kind of accommodation the Seekers wanted or wished for. It was more than a bit queer to see how unwilling Starscream was to step in the hangar – while the other two were hurrying in, to be in the place they considered safety. To Prowl it awakened old, painful memories, back to the time when he saw a similar scene, with Thundercracker and Skywarp…

Their capture and escape was told later in the rec room and the simple, unadorned tale of the tactician left little doubt in anyone that he could thank his life to the Seeker. It changed a lot of attitudes how Starscream was viewed, both his intelligence and his loyalties. Not all of them though; some prejudices are more deep-set than a single instance could change them and mechs react differently if forced to face their actions, their injustice – some takes it better than others, while some prefer ignorance, denial or even anger. But at least some of the Autobots were trying to change their views about their Seekers, making up for the past and willing to let them become part of the crew.

The next day brought more upheaval, at least to Starscream who was undoubtedly the spokesmech of the trio – if the term could be applied to someone not capable of speaking that is. Prowl convinced him to see Ratchet to find out if his vocalizer could actually pronounce Cybertronian or if not it could be adjusted to do so. Prowl was surprised how much Starscream was afraid of the proposed examination – until he remembered their suspicions of the origins of his changes.

"Starscream, do you know a mech called Shockwave?"

His answer was an angry but fearful shudder, accompanied by a firm nod.

"Did he make… experiments on you?"

Smaller nods, painful, shaking wings and the Seeker pointed a servo to his helm, mimicking taking it off and clawing in. It was a definite answer, albeit one that neither of them liked; Shockwave's experiments could and usually did include unstable, dangerous or unpredictable surprises. But it explained his hesitation from Ratchet…

"Ratchet is not like Shockwave. He will not do any experiments on you. He only wants to see your vocalizer. Do you want to be able to talk with us?"

"eeeesssssss!" – he screeched and nodded too, watching him enquiringly whether it was understandable or not.

Prowl looked back at him with surprise. "Did you just say 'yes'?"

"eeeesssssss!"

"So you can speak?" – Prowl wasn't sure, but it would change everything again that they knew about him and the Seekers in general. But his sad helmshake answered his question at once.

"But do you want Ratchet to examine your vocalizer?"

Starscream nodded, still a bit fearful but hoping too. He had of course tried to imitate many times the sounds that the other mechs made, but even to his own audials the results were bad, the sound rarely coming even close to their sounds. But he wanted to be able to speak and trusted Prowl enough to believe him about the medic. They trekked to the med bay with Prowl telling him the parts of the ship, introducing the Autobots that they met, and generally behaving normally, like he was a new member of the crew, coming around the first time. He had warned Ratchet of the complication that the Seeker's memories of Shockwave meant and the medic tried to be nonthreatening and friendly with the visibly nervous Seeker.

"Just sit here and lift your head. I'll just scan you first, nothing more."

Starscream obediently looked up and sat unmoving until the tingling sensation of the scan passed, trilling a very quiet, low stanza that got Ratchet smiling before he started to examine the scan results. It was a sound very much like a sparkling would make in such situation, making the big and quite dangerous looking Seeker suddenly vulnerable and… almost cute.

"Have you tried to speak like us?"

Starscream nodded but shrugged too, signaling that he had no success with that.

"The vocalizer is quite different from ours, so it is not surprising. I don't think you could learn much."

"Can it be modified somehow?"

"Brilliant idea Prowl. I would have never thought of it, had you not mentioned."

They both turned their heads, surprised at the clearly laughing trills from the Seeker. Ratchet especially was nonplussed that he understood the sarcasm, but it shocked Prowl too.

"But yes, I think I can modify it somewhat that gives him a chance… only problem that his 'accent' of their songs will be affected a little too." – he looked questioningly to Starscream but he didn't fully understand the whole sentence. – "I mean if I modify it, you can speak our language – but you will sing worse than now." – The Seeker looked worried about it but it was Prowl who expressed his question for him.

"Will you be able to reverse the change if it turns out wrong for his singing?"

"Yes, of course."

"Starscream? Do you want this?"

He bent his dark helm to one side for a while, little trills and warbles escaping from his vocalizer as he thought it over, glancing at the patiently waiting Ratchet, like he was measuring up the medic to see if he could trust him. Both officers present watched the process interestedly; moments like this were the strongest proofs for the Seeker's sentience, as he was measuring up facts and circumstances and made a decision, instead of just going with instincts. At the end he nodded and his wistful glance expressed clearly that he desperately wanted to be able to communicate.

"Okay… in that case just lie down here and try not to move. It won't hurt but it will take some time."

He wasn't patient that was sure, Ratchet mused while he worked, apparently being unmoving was a real task for him; the servos, the wings, the feet all twitched from time to time and he made a visible effort of stilling himself every time they did. But in a few breems the medic cautiously nudged the necessary components into a new alignment, soldered the wires into their place and finally closed the plating over it.

"There you are. It is ready. Now, don't try to speak or sing in any way for a few breems at least! It'll have to settle properly." – Starscream sat up but stayed where he was and didn't try to speak either. He was nervous, maybe even more than before the change. – "When I tell you that you can, I want to repeat what I tell you, just quietly and without forcing it. Okay?"

He nodded and awaited the medic to pronounce the 'settling' ready, whatever it meant. It wasn't long before he started, telling single words first for him to repeat and signal if he understood the meaning or not. It was a long, tedious process and his pronunciation was at first hardly understandable and getting slowly better even after a good joor's practice when they decided to stop for the day.

"Can you sing well enough still?"

Some happy, slightly scratchy trills answered to his question, accompanied by an enthusiastic nod; apparently no matter how he wanted to be able to speak, his language was still far easier for him. He tried the range of his new vocalizer with some notes that tested the mechs' audials as well, but apparently he found it satisfactory and returned to a more normal pitch, singing to himself as all the Seekers did most of the time.

By the time they got back to the hangar, not only the cages were completely gone, but part of the big space was now walled off, giving the inhabitants the privacy when they felt like it; and included some furniture too that the Autobots offered. The Seekers found the berths comfortable, but strange to recharge so high off the ground – besides none of the berths were big enough for three Seekers and they didn't even understand the idea of recharging separately. The various recliners and stools were still tested by them, as to whether they liked them or not – they considered them more like toys than furniture. The soft, metallic mesh covering for things they found nice but strange; Cybertron, the metallic-crystalline planet never had many such plush surfaces in nature. They had an energon dispenser of their own in the hangar too; and all three Seekers tested incessantly their freedom to come and go as they pleased. The hangar's outer doors were wired to open and close with simple buttons and Prowl was smiling slightly seeing Skywarp standing there and pushing them as fast as the doors could follow – easily a hundred times in one breem.

He had a sneaking suspicion that the black Seeker was going to be a handful now, that he had a free run of the ship. For him apparently all this upheaval and freedom thing meant new games, discoveries and playing – and Starscream warbled and screeched to both of them all the time, apparently explaining the things that he could. They did laugh at him first, hearing his changed voice but both of them were staring surprised when he first started to speak Cybertronian words. Thundercracker too tried to mimic him, but he had no more success than when Starscream did it at first. But they understood him apparently, Prowl mused as he continued to observe them. In a while they could give them a comm line too, although it will be hard to understand their speech through that. Starscream also started to learn writing, as reading was already in his grasp.

**Trine**

Both Seekers felt when the time came to decide the leadership. They were flying together for a few orns now, getting out every joor they could, enjoying the freedom to fly whenever they wanted to, going back to the Ark only for necessary recharge and refuel. They got to know each other, the styles, the abilities, the temperaments and started to weave their flying together, into a true Trine. All three of them learned to fly point as well as second and third positions before one cycle the exchange suddenly got tangled up and Skywarp teleported away from his hissing, jostling mates, transforming and clawing into each other's plating in the air. Starscream looked somewhat smaller with his lighter and brighter colours, but he was no less riled up than the darker blue and black Thundercracker; both of them were in mech form but floating-flying in mid-air, wings flaring to issue and accept the challenge, thrusters straining to gain position. Then the claws flashed in the sunlight, the engines and vocalizers growled, hissed and screeched as they fought – for real the first time since they met.

Trine fights were half serious, half ritualistic; to win one of the contestants had to force their opponent to the ground either by intimidation, injuries or just sheer tiredness at the end. The fights rarely caused serious damage, since the prospective trine-mates have always been few and losing one to serious injuries was a worse outcome than losing the fight and a great shame to the 'victor'. The two Seekers twisted and tumbled through the air, falling and rising as they tore vicious claws into the other's armour – but never into the wings - and tried to make the other lose altitude. They were almost evenly matched at first; while Thundercracker was bigger and stronger, Starscream was faster and more agile – and had the advantage of advanced training too with moves that no Seeker but he used. It took some time but he countered all the blue Seeker's attacks – and when he couldn't come up with new ones, he started charging and Thundercracker just couldn't cope with them.

At the end he gave up, succumbing to the other's more sophisticated, cunning style, unable to withstand him to force them downwards, losing altitude. His defiant trills quietened as his strength sapped until he was not even fighting back, only keeping himself from crashing heavily. Starscream knew that he won and accordingly he wasn't forcing the issue any more; still together, they tumbled downwards, but it was him controlling the descent, both to keep the blue Seeker from injury or from retaliation. When they landed he looked into Thundercracker's optics, still keeping him covered, waiting until he saw the wings droop to properly submissive position, trilling _Starscream/leader/trine_ to him. Skywarp appeared beside them as well, acknowledging him as trine leader too, warbling to the both of them, happier than Starscream ever seen the black Seeker. For him the only important thing was that they had each other at last, not the actual rank within the trine.

There is one more important thing to Trine fights; they don't carry grievances from them. Starscream won it and so he would become the leader, but that was it – Thundercracker felt no resentment or frustration for being second, just accepted his place in the Trine, just as Skywarp did his. This acceptance might have had something to do with a huge mating orgy at the end that sealed the Trine bonds - and caused even the twins to blush when the patrol route took them that way accidentally and they came across the Seekers. They weren't known for their prudery but when they came back from the patrol, late by almost a joor, the twins looked shocked to the core and told no mech what they'd seen. When the Seekers returned, several joors after the twins, they looked like caked in fluids and dirt – and who knows what those covered – exhausted to the point of dropping, nearly empty of fuel, but happy as clams.

The incident had an interesting side effect too; while Seekers were considered clever animals, no mech even thought of interfacing with one. But, as the twins argued one evening, sitting in the rec room, if they were mechs too, and their interface equipment was similar, then they should be considered eligible partners too. Which argument resulted in a deep, ringing silence around the table, as the mechs present tried to imagine it. Or tried not to in some cases.

**Trial and error**

The only thing that still had to be improved was the interaction of the Seekers with the Autobots. After a few millenias of habit neither side could change their attitude easily, and while the Seekers took their freedom cautiously and didn't test it with wild schemes, many of the Autobots were more vary and some still opposing to it. Optimus Prime of course notified the whole crew of the new status of the Seekers and Prowl gave some advice as to how to deal with their presence there, but it was all too new still and basically neither side had any good idea as to how will they be able to live together as equals. Since Starscream could talk – a little and after a fashion – there was at least a way to clear misunderstandings that were apt to come up.

Still, Prowl found it interesting that since they could come in the Ark itself, they haven't done so, preferring to remain in the hangar or outside, not approaching any of the Autobots who didn't make the effort of going down to their place. Since he couldn't discover the reason for it, decided to ask the Seekers outright.

"Starscream, why don't you come to the ship any more?"

"Neverrr cæmeee therr."

"But Thundercracker and Skywarp did sometimes."

The Seeker turned to the other two, clearly asking them about it with the trills: _Inside/go/why/query_. Thundercracker answered him with an _outside/forbidden/flight/run_, while Skywarp, remembering the last time they did it, shook his wings fearfully_._

"Theyyy coud not fly, so dey ræn. Forbideeeen outsssseid. Nov outssseid betterrr. Flying betterrr."

"I see. I noticed that you don't like inside places at all."

"Sssmæll plæces bæd. Verrry bæd."

"But the ship is hardly small. Sometimes you could come in to talk mechs. The rec room is quite big, it shouldn't be a problem"

"Mossst hæte ussss. Ve sssee. They don't vænt to talllk." – wings drooping slightly as Starscream showed that he understood perfectly the general mood surrounding them still. "They don't hate you… they don't know you yet. Some are afraid. Some mistrustful."

"Afræid is veak. æutobotsss ære værrrriorss, yesss? Not veæk."

"Mechs are afraid of unknown and Seekers are unknown – and dangerous."

"Veee keep vorrrd! Not dængerusss!" – he was agitated and hissing worse than usual. – "No hurrrt æutobotsss, no hurrrt humænsss. Ve rememberrr!"

"I mean you are big, strong and can be dangerous. I didn't question your promise not to hurt any Autobots."

"Okayy. But no going into ssship yet."

"How much your friends understand from our conversation?"

"TeeCee is undesssænding lot. Mossst vorrrds. Prrroblæm isss sentencesss. But he væntsss to ssspeak too."

"Really? I'm glad to hear that. If you want, I'll ask Ratchet to modify their vocalizers too so they can, is that all right?"

The blue Seeker was nodding happily to him, signaling his understanding. It was even more than he expected after such a short time and Prowl got more and more hopes of this whole experiment was working out well.

"Immæ teching dem vorrrds."

"Good. Why don't you come to the rec room with me? I certainly don't hate you."

"Ve talllk here. Why go therrre?"

"So that you might meet others. Learn more words. Besides there are games there that you would probably like."

"Gæmesss?" – The inner battle was almost visible on his frame and wings. Starscream loved discovering new things, Prowl noticed by this time, with a vengeance almost, wanting to learn something in every breem, considering the time not spent with acquiring knowledge wasted. But he was still vary of Autobots, especially if there were more around him. – "I go. Sssee new gæmesss."

Turning to his trine he trilled a quick _games/inside/coming/query_ to them, not quite saying that he'd prefer the trine to back him up, giving them an out if they didn't want to. Which Skywarp quickly took, remembering still to the last time he was punished for going there. Thundercracker was torn between staying with him or going to see the promised games, Skywarp holding him back, while Starscream encouraged him to accompany him; and Prowl watched, thoroughly fascinated by the inner workings of the trine in action. In the end Skywarp was left alone – and if he was any judge of Seeker expressions peeved as well by being left behind. But his fear was stronger than giving up and follow them… at least so far.

The other two Seeker trooped after him through the Ark corridors, Starscream watching everything interested, Thundercracker still rather sticking close to the smaller Seeker. Entering the rec room, Prowl led them to a side table amongst the incredulous stares of the mechs sitting already in the room. It caused some snickering among them to see that both Seekers automatically sat on the ground, totally not used to couches or chairs, but so far no mech approached the trio and no discernible remarks floated towards them. Prowl introduced Starscream to several games that lay around, and after rifling through some of them, he started to examine a chess set more in detail.

"Whatsss disss?"

"It is called chess. A game for two mechs, simulating war between them, with some rules."

"Wærrr æmong de piecesss?"

"War between the two armies: black and white. Each figure can move according to rules and can fight with certain other figures. The goal is to eliminate the other army or its key pieces."

"Teæch me de rulesss!"

It came as a disappointment to Starscream that the figures didn't actually fight when they met, but otherwise he enjoyed the war-game. He lost quickly, but didn't seem to mind it, starting another game straight after the previous one. Thundercracker was still very quiet, sticking close to his trine leader, following the movement of the pieces on the board with interest for a while, but he got bored by it soon and started to look around for other games. Starscream, on the other servo was fascinated with chess and didn't want to leave it until he could devise a workable strategy.

"Neeed betterrr væy to bættle the piecesss. No fliersss."

"Need much better strategy if you want to beat Prowler." – came the unexpected remark from the approaching Jazz. – "He is a master player."

Starscream hissed at the interruption, optics flashing and wings hiking up as he saw the smaller Autobot sitting down by the table, on a couch. Although he was still slightly smaller this way than the Seeker who stayed on the ground but the jet didn't know him at all and he saw Thundercracker's worry as well. But Jazz didn't mind the aggressive display and laughing easily he showed the blue Seeker the nearby case, full of scaled up jigsaw and mechanical puzzles and other logic games. Few played with those any more, the result of one bout of Wheeljack's fascination with Earth games, only the jigsaw puzzles saw some use by the more childlike of the crew, but they were heaven for the Seekers – and the act nicely defused the Starscream's hostile mood too.

"I have time for one quick game only, before I have to go. And I don't expect anyone just introduced to chess to be master of it. It takes time to learn the best strategies."

"Ah vill learrrn ssstrætegy. Gæme mussst sstæy hierrr?"

"No, there are more sets. You can take this one with you."

They played a match and Jazz could already see seeds of strategy emerging in the Seeker's moves. He lost again of course, but it was still amazing to see the way his thinking shone from his actions; all the more humbling from the being they all considered a mere animal just a few orns ago. Unfortunately it didn't humble everyone; as long as Prowl was there no other mech approached them, but when he left, Jazz noticed several curious and some more hostile glances towards the fliers. But looks can't hurt and he didn't think that anyone would be openly hostile towards them right there, in public – considering their size and twitchy tempers, it was just common sense.

So, when Smokescreen came over and sat with his lopsided smile at the table, Jazz didn't think anything bad of the situation or heading into such. He introduced himself and offered another game to Starscream, which he accepted, while Thundercracker, who got bored by the puzzles and started to miss Skywarp left to their hangar. The rec room started to fill up with mechs coming off duty and some of them stared incredulously at the Seeker sitting on the floor and playing chess; but he caused no commotion, and signaled his occasional discomfort, caused by the stares only with some nervous twitching of his wings.

"So, Starscream… tell me, what it was like to be Decepticon?" – the question was abrupt, almost rude in tone, coming from the so far quiet and observing Smokescreen.

"Bæd." – came the laconic answer, the calmness of which belied by an almost violent jerking of the wings.

"How so?"

"Cægesss are bæd. Desepticonsss ære cruelll." – the nervous shuddering of the wings became more and more pronounced.

"Were you cruel too? If you were a Decepticon…"

The blazing red glare that Starscream lifted to Smokescreen's face would have unnerved even braver bots than him – but he answered calmly enough, concentrating on not letting his temper get the better of him.

"Ah væsss not. Vhy not æssssk a Desepticon?"

"Maybe because I see one now, right here?"

"Ssstærssscream isss no Desepticon."

"Like anyone believes that…!" – the angry voice belonged to one of the minibots that Starscream didn't know the name of but who looked like nearly exploding in a rage. Starscream welcomed it more than the sly insinuation of the Praxian; he could deal with open anger better. After all, Decepticons acted like that all the time…

"Sssome believe, sssome knov. The ressst isss ssstupid enough not to mætterrr."

"YOU call mechs stupid?" – Cliffjumper spluttered in his rage. – "You are barely more than a drone!"

"Starssscream cællsss you ssstupid, becæussse you ære." – the clawed servo moved with unbelievable speed, pinning the red minibot to the wall behind him, a vicious talon stopping just micrometers away from the main energon line in his throat. – "Wissse mechsss realizzz vhen dey ære in dængerrr."

"It… it just shows that you are still a Decepticon!" – Cliffjumper was afraid but as was his nature, he covered it up with aggression. – "Let me go you mindless drone!"

"A mindlesss drrrone doesssnt let you go." – The smirk was downright terrifying, showing threat, contempt and nervous anger at the same time with just enough flashing of the fangs to stress the first. But the wings flared high showing the dangerous-looking Seeker even bigger than he was, adding to the threat tremendously. Thundercracker also dropped the game that he held and moved closer, backing up his trine leader.– "Ah, Starssscream might. If you æsssk. Nisely. And fassst."

At times like this, Jazz mused watching the scene develop, even his bright, cheerful colour-scheme seemed to darken, becoming just another threatening visual clue. The whole great, streamlined frame was one coiled spring, ready to attack and showing it. How was he doing that? The TIC wasn't afraid of things taking a bad turn; he saw that Starscream was controlling his temper and well, Cliffjumper did deserve a bit of a lesson for the insult. This way, unless they got physical, the whole thing wouldn't have to end up at Prowl's desk for punishment and such things, while the crew could learn not to try and pick on their newest members.

"I… I won't ask while you threaten me!"

"Maybe you should apologise because you were insulting." – He decided to show support to the Seeker, not at all sure how it would be received. He simply didn't know Seekers enough to guess their customs in this kind of matters. Starscream glanced at him, surprised, but Jazz saw a tiny bit of thankfulness twinkle in his optics for a nanoklik.

"Sssmæll bot vasss inzulting Starssscream. Mussst æpologissse."

Cliffjumper was sulking but he knew that he lost and spectacularly to boot. "I didn't mean to… to call you a drone." – he growled fast, reluctant and barely loud enough for Starscream to hear. He wasn't going to retract calling him 'Decepticon', that was for sure.

Starscream saw quite clearly that the minibot was as far from an honest apology as he was from Cybertron, but glancing to Jazz, gauging his reaction, he knew that it was acceptable contrition by their standards. Removing his claws from his throat, he left Cliffjumper go, sat back to the chess board and moved his rook, deliberately ignoring the other bot slinking away, obviously already working up another rage. He finished the rest of the game quickly, losing his taste for it, although Smokescreen tried to draw out a bit more, and refused to talk any more. At the end he thanked the game and headed out from the rec room with the air of not quite escaping, but leaving a dangerous ground anyway. He wasn't against confrontations, but it would be nice to know the rules first.

**Working together**

After giving a few orns for the Seekers to settle into their new, free life, Prowl thought that the time arrived for them to get used to fulfilling their end of the deal, besides not harming anyone. This part, they kept meticulously, not a single mech or human was injured so far, not even by accident; he knew that as time went on the more uncontrolled and insanely devious Skywarp would probably cause some trouble, but so far he trusted his trine mates to hold him back. He was the least developed of the Seekers, barely understanding anything beside fighting, mating and rambunctious games, a creature of instincts and emotions. Bumblebee called it adorable, Jazz cute, but to Prowl he seemed more like Sideswipe as the frontliner could have been while a youngling; likeable and a handful, but with the promise of the later deviousness. Because it was always there, the same vicious nature and ruthless fighting as in all Seekers – just in him it was almost entirely without control.

The modification of their vocalizer went without any problems and Thundercracker was starting to learn to speak words, but strangely, Skywarp so far refused to speak any or even to tell them why. They were all given comm link devices, safely tucked under their plating and Prowl's suspicion was correct; through the comm link, even Starscream's sibilant, hissing-screeching words were hardly understandable and it only got better in a long time. Until then, the communication was largely one-sided, but the Seekers didn't seem to mind. They had a separate alarm signal in case and their jobs hardly required much talking.

At first he set them regular patrol routes to fly, each of them covering an area alone and some together; sending back to the Ark regular reports that consisted – so far as communication was limited – simple, pre-set messages like 'all-clear', 'checking area', 'Decepticon forces', 'heading back', and so on. The patrol taught them to work regularly and meticulously; a task in which Skywarp regularly failed to no one's surprise - but interestingly Starscream too; his voracious curiosity usually led him to abandon the patrol route to examine something or just to have a look around. So far Prowl didn't even think of punishing them for this as he would have done if the twins abandoned their patrol in such manner; he knew that it would break the slowly building trust that the Seekers displayed in them. So far he only tried to stress the importance of the patrol and told Starscream that he could examine anything afterwards.

As for reports even after groons he still gave Prowl datapads with only a 'nothing happened' glyph on it and in this he proved to be difficult; if asked he would tell anything they saw, sometimes even lapsing back into trilling and singing, or enacting things – but written reports he steadfastly hated and avoided doing whenever he could. No matter that he could and liked to read, Seekers were at spark creatures of voice, sounds and singing. He tried to teach Jazz of their language and they did make a little progress, but the structure of the language was far too alien, even for the music-loving officer. And of course it didn't make his reports any better, much to the frustration of Prowl.

"Starscream, I don't have the time to sit here and listen to you regaling me with your adventures on patrol. I must read hundreds of reports every day."

"Ssso, Ah give you shorrrt onesss, rrright? Mæke Prrrowl hæppy with lessss reporrrtsss."

"No, that's not what I mean. You should write down what you saw. That's what a report means."

"But Ah tell betterrr!"

"Starscream, I need the report written, not told."

"Ah vrite vhæt isss imporrrtant. If nothing isss, Ah vrite nothing."

Prowl usually gave it up sooner or later. Their arguments were eerily similar to the ones he sometimes had with Jazz; he debated with meticulous logic and unquestionable facts, Starscream fought back with brilliant illogic and wild emotional leaps; and similar to the TIC, he was also adept at making unwanted things unheard. To include him into an officers' meeting was another exercise in futility; he got bored by it after a few breems when the topic didn't concern him or the Seekers and a bored Starscream while interesting to watch – was quite a handful. Besides he was incredibly vary of Optimus Prime and Prowl haven't been able to draw out the reason from him either; he suspected that it might have been an instilled reflex by Megatron or something similar and couldn't alleviate it in any way he tried.

Of fighting and battles, they needed to learn little, since it was their function as far as any of them remembered; the only thing Prowl was trying to teach them, mainly to Starscream of course, was to pay more attention to the armies in general, to discover strategy and tactics so as to be able to attack where it was most effective. For this their regular chess games resulted in an unexpected bonus, as the Seeker totally accepted Prowl's superiority in strategic matters and never hesitated in the battlefield when he ordered something to the Seekers. His own grasp of strategy and battlefield tactics grew too both by studying and observation of Prowl's in chess - and later in battles.

**Fly high**

They all knew what the Decepticon alert klaxon meant and when they heard it one morning, Starscream immediately knew what to do. Prowl's comm message reached them while already outside and they wasted no time to fly ahead to gather info. The Decepticons attacked a smallish power plant and arriving there, the Seekers saw them terrorizing the humans and making energon as they usually did; conveying back the aerial images Prowl was able to plan an effective attack by the time the Autobots arrived there. Not that it went all that different from the usual hit and run battles that Cons used for energon collecting… they all knew the routine after so long.

Starscream flew low over the Con ranks, trying to pick on his tormentors from before; the Seeker wasn't against a little vengeance, seeing nothing wrong with it. They were mean and cruel to him and since he could repay that, he would. His Trine had no preference which Cons to attack and Prowl only told him to strafe the ones defending the plant – which he did as it coincided with his intention. Drawing up before the retaliatory fire, he saw the Con Seekers flying their way, towards the Autobot ranks and Starscream had a sudden idea. Leading his Trine to intercept the Coneheads he initiated a well-known game that Seekers used to play; something similar to tag, it involved them for a few kliks while the two trines rolled and twisted around each other, without actual fighting. It looked like they got into each other's way and their flight paths tangled; but under that pretense he could trill some to them and he saw Thrust listening.

He sang _listen/attention/important_, followed by _fly/high/dare_. After that last bit even Thundercracker and Skywarp looked at him bemused, not understanding what he meant; but he continued. _Leader/bad/fly/high_ was a concept that they understood, as Thrust's hesitant warble indicated and he reinforced the suggestion with _trine/fly/high_ and _Starscream/fly/high/success _made them look at his wings, missing the clamps and gaining wing-mates. Thrust sang a quiet _things/hurt/obey/leader_ back to him, but he countered with _Autobot/remove/things_ and _Autobot/leader/allow/fly/high_, which was the most complex sentence-like concept that their language allowed for. Skywarp couldn't stay quiet and trilled his _fly/happy/free/dance_ to the Con Trine, even though he was naturally reticent in the presence of stranger Seekers. The short flight around each other allowed for nothing more and the Trines parted; but Starscream knew that he planted the seeds of doubts and thinking into the other's mind.

As for _flying high,_ it is a special concept in Seeker culture, one that became almost obsolete since the Captivity, but still an integral part of their psyche. Before, in freedom, all family flocks were led and ruled by the creator; it was no democracy, the leader's words were law. When the younglings of the group grew up though, they started to question that authority in the first signs of adulthood, and looking for their own mate or trine. But when they found it, they had to leave their family flocks first, breaking the familial bonds in order to form the new ones. This ritual was called flying high, because it encompassed the whole flock flying upwards as far as they could, with the 'escaping' young Seeker trying to outfly the others vertically. If the leader of the flock agreed to his leaving then he let the youngster fly ahead, but sometimes, when he didn't want the young Seeker to go, it came down to a real flying contest and sometimes even an aerial domination fight.

Even though most youngsters remained with their flock until finding a mate and the consequent courting; but sometimes they left, in a fit of rebellion against the strict rule of the flocks' leaders. Starscream was one of these, the Wild Ones, as the more conventional fliers called them; all unmated young Seekers, living alone or in temporary pairs, flying away from the established familial territories, visiting them all in the hopes of finding their mates. They were the vagabonds of Seekers, carrying and spreading news, gossips, tales and songs amongst the flocks that rarely if ever flew over each other's regions. They were also the braver, the more adventurous ones, and as such considered a good catch by the more traditional, family-bound Seekers.

All in all, flying high, especially against the leader meant freedom, and those who dared it were considered to be brave and proud, the act itself considered positive. Starscream, taunting the Coneheads with it knew quite well what he was doing; as they were an established Trine, he could not entice them in any other way, and convincing would require time, which is quite hard in the flurry of the battle. By planting the concept of flying high into their meta he made them known that it was possible and if they were brave enough they could follow his example. It was up to them to discuss it and in the next battle, give an answer. Until that time, he would have to tell it to the Autobots too…

Starscream flew on, leading his mates, firing on the Con grounders where Prowl told him to do so, but his mind was suddenly working on a separate level, where he saw not only his and his Trine's fate but other Seekers too. It was uncomfortable first, as he lived alone far too long to be sociable, to think of a flock, especially such a huge one that included all living Seekers. There has never been such a flock. There has never been a leader of leaders who would have authority over all the fliers. But he learned from the two warring factions that unless they adopt this custom, they would remain insignificant, unimportant, fragmented. Only as one flock they could hope to be equal to the Autobots and Decepticons alike, only this way they can all be free.

Radical concepts from someone, a mere groon ago only concerned with avoiding punishment from Con soldiers, wearing a collar and having almost no contact with other Seekers. But, as Starscream continued to think, while executing his maneuvers flawlessly, it was logical; Autobots were led by Optimus Prime, the Decepticons by Megatron, while Seekers by no mech. And he saw where that led them – into cages. Only when he dared to fly high – albeit with the permission of someone – could he lead his Trine to freedom. He had no doubts that other Seekers would choose this instead of a cage... if only he could explain it to them.

**Twin troubles**

After the incident with Cliffjumper, the Seekers didn't go to the rec room again for quite a while – they were mostly content to have the company of those Bots who took the effort of going to their hangar for talking and like Prowl usually for an occasional game of chess. But he kept calling them there again, wanting to try and integrate them into the crew, make them familiar to mechs so that they would be more accepted. Even so, he was surprised when one orn it was Skywarp who answered to him positively and sort of prodded the whole trine too to go. The scene was different this time in the rec room too; far more mechs relaxed everywhere, paying less attention to them and some music played in the background, setting the Seekers a bit more at ease.

Prowl got them sitting among a low table – they still disdained the chairs, especially for relaxation – and called over Blaster on the pretext of music to give them more exposure to different mechs. It worked nicely for a while, even with the problems with talking, as it was still mainly Starscream who could convey their thoughts, albeit Thundercracker was trying his best to contribute too. But Skywarp was less interested in the talks he couldn't fully understand and more in the games – unfortunately those were farther from their table this time. It took him some time to gather his courage and leave the safety of their company; the others were quite entrenched in the conversation to pay much attention that he left.

Skywarp tried to be as inconspicuous as he could as he wandered towards the chest, holding the games that TC told him about; but it is a fairly hard task if one is nearly the biggest and certainly the strangest in colouring. No surprise then that his advance was followed by several stares and glances; but after the last time when Starscream schooled Cliffjumper almost nobody was inclined to pick a quarrel with the Seekers. Still, his wings were plastered flat on his back and he glanced around nervously – especially when he saw certain pair of red and yellow mechs sitting close to his goal. He knew the twins of course and he was afraid of them, especially Sunstreaker, and his glowering was enough for him to stop and rather give up getting to the games.

But Sideswipe stood up and cuffing his brother lightly, called the Seeker forward, grinning like somebody gave him an unexpected present. Truth to be told he was wondering how to get close to him alone, separated from the other two; the three Seekers were just too dangerous of a target, even for the frontliners, and Sideswipe had plans with the most naïve of the fliers. Disregarding his brother's angry glare, he sat beside the visibly nervous Skywarp, shoving a randomly picked puzzle ball into his servo.

"Hey Skywarp! Glad to see you here. You wanted to see these?"

Skywarp only answered with a really anxious, low chirping, and hesitantly looked at the ball. He wasn't as much thrilled by the puzzles as his mates, but didn't dare to antagonize the frontliner, so he turned it a few times around, trying to find out what to do with it. Sideswipe quickly had enough of his clear confusion and unresponsiveness and picking the puzzle from him, showed the flier how it worked. Skywarp imitated his moves easily after seeing it once, and picking up a different, more colourful one, thrust it into the red warrior's servo to show it too.

"Okay, flyboy, let's see how this one works."

Skywarp's nervousness slowly lessened as he spent a little time with Sideswipe – but it returned periodically, when his glance fell onto the still morose Sunstreaker, glowering at them angrily. Times like those, his trilling quietened again and automatically moved a bit farther from the yellow mech. It was hard as he didn't want to get nearer to the red one either – the Seeker didn't notice Sideswipe's clever maneuvering with which he put him between them, forcing him to choose between getting closer to one of them. He only felt his growing unease that was soon enough to make the games uninteresting and he started to fidget to get out of the corner that he was subtly maneuvered into.

He soon found out that to do that, he would have to go through either of the twins; an idea that very nearly made him panic and the not so subtle grins on the twins' faceplates just sent him over the edge. Teleporting away suddenly he appeared in the midst of his group, crashing into the table, sending all cubes flying, energon splashing on them all and the mechs shouting at him. Blaster wasn't really angry, more like surprised, but the sudden energon shower didn't exactly endear the Seeker to him either and he left them to get cleaned up. The Seekers also left the rec room soon after a trilling-warbling conversation that made them a spectacle again. Skywarp was upset when they got back to their place, but he couldn't even express why, as in reality the twins did nothing, Sideswipe even tried to attend to him with the games. The others didn't see what happened until he teleported back to them, so they all considered it to result of nerves only and Skywarp's general fear of the twins, nothing more.


	5. Part V

**Note**: plain Italics is Seeker-song, while ::comm::

I'm sorry to take this long with the update, but I hit a bad writer's block and it took time to get over it. Hopefully from now on it'll go faster than this.

* * *

><p><strong>Part V<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Prowl's embarrassment<strong>

Back in the hangar, Thundercracker was trying to calm the frightened Skywarp by touch and sound; there were no words in his deep purrs, only the notions of _safe/calm/unhurt_ and _protect/trine/close_. Starscream was also cuddling the still vibrating dark wings and trilling his assurances; he believed the black Seeker that something happened that made him teleport away. He was now responsible for the Trine, both as leader and the one understanding them best. He knew the Autobots less than the other two but the twins had a bad reputation and he didn't trust them at all – and Skywarp was not one to be afraid of nothing. The Autobots mostly saw him tamed and fearful in a cage, but he was a vicious fighter and had they watched him in battle, they could've seen that for themselves. The cuddling soon became heated, the trills silenced by kisses and the touches became sensual as it was wont to do with Seekers.

Prowl went after the trio when he heard about the commotion, to ask them if things got settled, but he started to turn back from the door as soon as he entered, seeing them comingled on the huge berth. They never locked their door… but they did look like engaging in heated foreplay and he definitely didn't want to disturb or watch them in it. But as he turned to leave Starscream lifted his helm from a compromising position between Skywarp's legs that almost made Prowl blush – the place got taken by Thundercracker as soon as his trine-leader let him there, moving from his previous position of petting his wings. The look in those red optics stopped the tactician in his tracks and the purr in the Seeker's voice actually made his faceplates heat up.

"Prrrowl. Disssæprove of matin'?" – the voice was, despite of the hiss, downright sensual.

"No, of course not. I'm sorry… it is impolite to watch others engaging in interface." – he made a move to step out of their place, but the next question stopped him again. – "I shouldn't have come in…"

"Vhatsss impolite mænsss?"

Prowl was more embarrassed than ever in his long function and fighting for his own processor to keep it from crashing. The other two Seekers, in fact Starscream himself wasn't disturbed by his presence in the very least and their touching grew heated by the klik. But he couldn't just leave without an answer; that the Seekers would consider rude…

"It is a custom among mechs. You know, not a rule, but something most of us consider important to observe."

"Ah ssssee." – Starscream got up from the berth, amidst the faintly lacking, throaty growls and disapproving yowls from his Trine-mates; the Seeker obviously more curious than lustful suddenly. He trilled a short _apology/mate/later_ to the other two, who continued without him and followed Prowl who was backing out of the room. – "Like a grrrreetin'?"

"Yes, like that. Polite means behaving nicely towards others, considering how they would want us to behave. Impolite means disregarding how other mechs live, their customs, their wishes."

A short pause while the Seeker interpreted the complex concept. - "But vee don'tsa mind mechsss vætsssing usss."

"I… I observed." – he actually had to fight not to stutter or let his vents kick in. It was even harder because he felt Jazz laughing at him through the bond and Prowl knew that the saboteur will tease him with this incident with vorns to come. Was he watching on the security monitors?

"Sssso… Prrrowl feelsss bæd forrr vætsssing? …ænd tælkin' 'bout it?"

"Interface is considered an intimate act among us. We don't like others watching us or be watched by them either while engaging in it."

Starscream nodded his helm to the side while he translated the sentence. It didn't help a lot to Prowl's equilibrium that the Seeker had a small smear of lubricant on his dark faceplates while looking serious and thinking. He tried not to look at that spot. Jazz tried to egg him on to look at it. He ruthlessly ignored his mate in favor of his sanity.

"Sssome mechsss vætsssed usss outssseid and interrrfæssing. Thatsss impolite?"

"Yes, it usually is… although some say that those who interface publicly, don't mind being watched."

"Trrru. Ve don'ts mind."

"Just to know… who were the mechs watching? Were they the twins by any chance?"

"Tvinsss, yesss. Often vatsss." – Starscream looked at Prowl with a bit worried expression – "Dey vænt ta join to? Ve don't know how mechsss bond."

"That is a long topic… but I'm sure they don't want to bond. They might be just curious, might want to prank you; or might want to approach some of your Trine, but probably just for a casual interface." – he was so not the mech who should have this conversation with the overly interface-minded and totally shameless Seekers. Jazz was laughing even harder in their bond, hardly able to gasp some words to him. ::_Go on Prowler, they trust you, so you are the mech they should discuss it with!_::

"Kasssual interrrfæsss isss good. Ve don't mind thæt outseid Trrrine, but TeeCee and Varrrp ære kinda pæirrred."

"Does that preclude interfacing with others?"

"Not ifff dey væntsss it. Not ssseparrætly."

"The twins are bonded by the way – the twin bond is similar to the Trine bond, I was told."

"Ve knov. You haff bond too. Ve feel bondss. Yoursss isss vith Jæss. Do you interfæsss vith othersss too?"

"N-no… we don't." – he hoped that the slight stutter went unnoticed. – "Bonds usually mean exclusive relationship for mechs." - This conversation was fast approaching the level of being the most embarrassing in his function and that included some with Jazz too.

"Too bæd. Ve vuld don't mind Prrrrowl in our mæting." – The red optics were downright lewd… and Prowl's glance wandered to the smear again. – " But Prrrowl felsss bæd talkin' 'bout interfasss. Starssscream isss sorrry." – he didn't look much sorry, in fact Prowl thought that he caught a slight smirk on his lip-plates. Of course he was trying not to watch those, because of the smear, but still. Prowl rarely had to put so much effort to collect his calm and able to speak normally. He was aware that for the Seekers trust was not all that far from interface, but to hear it out loud was still… strange.

"Yes, well… we can talk about it another time. I guess you want to go back to your mates. I just came down to see if Skywarp was all right, but apparently he is…?"

"Yesss… tvinsss posssibly vants prrrænksss. Ve'll vatsss out." – Starscream smirked again, shuttered an optic to mimic a blink and disappeared behind their quarter's door.

Prowl - there was no better expression for it, he though – escaped. Jazz was laughing on the floor of his office so hard that he was unable to speak but overlooked a slightly worried Blaster who heard the noise and went in, now bemusedly staring at the saboteur.

::_Jazz, if you tell it to anyone. I…::_

_::Don't worry, love, I'll just tease you with it.::_

_::Somehow I was afraid of that.::_

* * *

><p><strong>Thrust's dilemma<strong>

The dark chamber deep in the bowels of the Nemesis was silent. Decepticon trainers had long ago determined that the Seekers were far more docile in the dark and therefore it quickly became a rule to keep their cages in barely lit hangars, to keep their tempers under control. What it felt like for the fliers to be locked up in dark, underground places, denied of flying – none of them thought to ask. When a Seeker went mad they just wrote it off as useless and deactivated him. Most often than not the one unsalvageable drew his Trine with him as well. The results? The remaining fliers were all teetering on the brink of madness, but able to cope with it – somehow.

According to Decepticon command, it just made them even better fighters. The only time they could fly was in battles, so they loved battles; and the only way they could release the pent-up stress and accumulating madness was to tear the enemy soldiers apart as viciously as they could. The softer ways, cuddling, caressing, caring was disapproved even within the Trines; it was thought to be causing them dependency. That all three fliers in any given Trine were interdependent naturally, they chose to overlook.

Thrust was worried about his Trine. He understood Starscream well enough, only he didn't think that they could fly high with the things on their wings that caused pain and could even make them fall from the sky if they tried to escape. Yes, he knew that the flock leader – as they both defined Megatron – was bad for him and for his Trine that he was responsible for. The Decepticons were all cruel, their cave was deep under the wet thing that smelled and tasted weird. The cage was far too small and dark and the things that the mechs used to punish them were painful. He missed flying freely and playing with his mates in the air, since during the battles they couldn't do it at all.

But what could he do? He thought of the tricoloured Seeker who used to be in the other cage but escaped to be seen with the Autobot later and wondered. He was alone, one of the Wild Ones, who were always daring more than other Seekers and he flew high to find his Trine who were with the Autobots. Thrust thought that he too would do it for prospective Trine-mates – but his were already around him. Bad as things were around them, but they already had each other. He trilled quietly, so that only his mates could hear, huddled as they were close to each other: _wild_one/dare/fly/high_. Dirge rumbled back in his deeper tones with a _wild_one/seek/trine_ and he agreed to it. Ramjet was bolder as usual and his _fly/high/good_ was almost a suggestion, to which he answered with a nervous twitch of his wings and _things/wings/pain _and_ fly/high/negative_.

They squatted quietly after that for a while, hands secretly caressing wings, wings arching into the touches, cuddling with as little movement as they could, so as not to call the mechs' attention to them. Then suddenly Ramjet lifted his helm and proclaimed _wild_one/hurt/escape_ to which Thrust looked at him questioningly. He insisted: _battle/wound/left_ and _Autobots/help/injury_. He understood what he meant, sort of… _Autobots/heal/damage_ and _Autobots/help/things/query_ he warbled back and Ramjet nodded back, singing _Ramjet/see/Autobots/help/injury_. Then they had to be silent again, because a mech came close to the cage and hit the bars. They became too loud.

But the decision was made without further singing, just by the looks and the emotions that flew through the Trine-bond. In the next battle, they would ask the escaped Seeker about the Autobots. If they were willing to help, to take the painful things off their wings, to give them energon and a better cage, then they could accept a new flock leader. Thrust didn't believe the black Seeker who said that they could fly freely. That couldn't be true. But even the rest of it would be better than here, under the foul fluid and among the cruel mechs. If Starscream succeeded, then they could do it too.

* * *

><p><strong>Starscream's worry<strong>

"Ve sssaw Deseptikonsss here." – he gave the coordinates instinctly, used to translate his position compared to the landmarks into the numbers, the Autobots used. It was denoting a deserted stretch of land – "Lookin' for sssomethin', anderrrrgrrrund."

"Which ones?"

"Ssstruktiesss. Diggin', carrrryin', maybe buildin' sssomethin'."

"Megatron must have had one of his 'brilliant' ideas…" – Jazz was not overly worried about it; Megatron was the most dangerous when he attacked straight and limited himself to battle tactics; whenever he had an idea of a superweapon or a world-shaking plot he failed inevitably and usually spectacularly. Starscream snickered at his mumbled statement and added his thoughts.

"Mægarrron rantsss æ lot, doesss little. Sssoundvæve doesss worrrk for Deseptikonsss."

"Quite true." – Prowl didn't mind them in his office for once, because he had already finished with the reports and was in the middle of a half-unofficial debrief with Jazz and concerned about the Decepticon plans anyway. – "Download your visual records please, Starscream."

"Ah… sssorry, Prrrowl, I æksssidentally deleted dem…" – neither of the Seekers, not even Starscream was proficient in using tools, only the most simple ones. The visual recorders were designed for normal Cybertronians and their small touchscreens often confused the fliers whose dangerous claws not really suitable for handling them.

"Could you or any of you go back and make new recording?"

"Sssure."

"Soon?"

"Yesss. Starssscream tellsss TeeCee."

"Thank you."

Prowl knew that there was something that Starscream wanted, just couldn't yet make himself to say it. He was fidgeting, wings and claws slightly twitching and normally he'd have left the office, once he told his account of the patrol. Jazz also noticed it and looked up from the datapad containing Mirage's report.

"Starscream, is there a problem…?"

"No, no problemsss…"

"But there is something… you can tell it."

"Itsss th' otherrr Sssekersss."

"Who? TC and Warp? What is it with them?"

"No, not dem! Th' Dessseptikon Sekerrss."

"Ahhh… you met…?"

"Læssst bættle. Starssscream told dem to fly high. Dat meansss essskape from bæd flok leaderrr."

"Flock-leader…?" – Prowl didn't know what to make of it. So far as he knew the Trine-leader was the only authority that Seekers had. But Jazz caught on faster.

"By flock leader you mean… Megatron?"

"Yesss!"

"So you told the Coneheads to escape from the Decepticons?"

"Yesss. But Thrussst not sssur. Hes æfræid. Deseptikonsss kruel wit' wingsss and dey don't knov Autobotsss neitherrr."

"I'm sure if they would defect, we could make the same deal with them as we did with you. The Prime surely wouldn't object." – even though a full Decepticon Trine with whom they've actually been fighting for vorns would make even more of a ruckus among the ranks. But even if they were just to leave the Decepticons, it would be a bonus.

"Starssscream cæn tell dat to Thrussst next bættle?"

"If they defect, would they accept you as authority? Or the Prime, as… flock leader? We don't know much about how Trines interact."

"Ve vuld fight for dominansss. Like for æ nesssting plæisss. He vuld don't fight with Prrrime, only me."

"Would the hangar be big enough for two trines?"

"Big enuff yesss. Good enuff no. Ve vuld fight a lot. Dey needs ssseparæte nessst. Cæve. Hængærrr. Plæisss."

"We can easily excavate a new cave from the mountainside, by the Ark, separate but connected. As many as you need in fact."

"Dey vuld like itsss."

"Then I think you can tell them that in the next battle."

"Dey cant nott defect with thingsss on deirrr wingsss. Handlerrrsss killsss with thosss." – he looked sad, so sad that the officers knew that he was speaking from experience. Prowl decided that one orn when they had time he would ask the Seeker to tell his story in full. He had a suspicion that it wouldn't make a happy tale.

"Ratchet can take the clamps off straight away. Or they could just fly outside their range."

"Whatssss range?"

"All devices work within a certain distance. It is called range. Outside the range the device doesn't have an effect."

Starscream looked agitated. – "Ssso iff I flew farrr enuff I could essskæped? How farr?"

"Probably. Have you tried to escape before? And I can't tell how far, it's different for every device."

"Once yesss. Lotssss ssseasonsss ægo Sssunsstorm fell in bættle. Got leffft behind. Starssscream tried to essskape ænd faind him."

"Sunstorm, I guess was another Seeker."

"Yesss… Starssscream wænted to court Sssunsstorm. Before."

"I'm sorry."

"He cæme bakk laterrr. Ssso he livesss… sssomewere."

"There are more Seekers on Cybertron, I know."

"Yesss… Starssscream nowsss. Big flock in darrrk mountæn."

"Darkmount?"

"Yesss. But I cæn't findsss th' plaisss here. Starssscream looked."

"Darkmount is on Cybertron…" – Prowl knew that it would tell nothing to the Seeker. – "That is another planet. Another place, far away."

"Whatsss plænet? Tell me more!"

They spent the next few joors with explaining space and planets to Starscream, and by the end they still weren't sure if he fully understood the idea. He seemed to grasp the notion that Darkmount was somewhere so far that he couldn't fly there, and the only way was through the space bridge. That he remembered, although he didn't know what it was at the time. But he tried hard to understand the concepts; Prowl saw that he was concerned with the other Seekers, both on Earth and on Cybertron. He discussed it later with Optimus Prime too, and he agreed with the tactician; to lure away the fliers from the Decepticons would be a great bonus strategically in the war. It was well worth of helping Starscream and his efforts beyond what they thought was fair in doing for the Seekers.

* * *

><p><strong>Skywarp's song<strong>

"Starscream, may I ask something from you?"

"You ællrrready do."

"I… uhh… yeah… it is polite to ask first."

Starscream looked strangely to Optimus Prime, red optics narrowed and wings fluttering halfway up, uncertain and hesitant. This politeness thing was bothering him ever since Prowl tried to explain and although he really tried, it still didn't make him a lot of sense.

"Asssk ifff you can æssk? Strrrænge. You need to æssk firssst ænd thatsss already æ quesssion."

Prowl saw Jazz leaning backward on his chair, eager for the promising conversation that had the potential to alleviate the boredom of the evening. Starscream was a natural in making both Prowl and the Prime embarrassed in no time and if he was lucky, he'd even catch a blush from either of them. Although lately Starscream seemed to catch on the notion that Autobots didn't like to talk about interfacing in public, but still, Optimus Prime apparently managed to run into one potentionally dangerous topic again. The Autobot leader did make a point lately by coming to the rec-room in those rare occasions when a Seeker or two made an appearance. He didn't come for their protection, as it wasn't exactly needed any more; more like getting to know them and making the crew behave a bit more friendly too.

After a few groons, most mechs got around the idea of the Seekers being intelligent and allies instead of mindless weapons, but they were still quite apart from them in behavior and habits and it created a rift that wasn't easy to bridge. It didn't help that the fliers were bigger and stronger than most mechs and their sharp, proudly displayed talons were known by most to be deadly weapons. The red optics that Prime heard described by many as menacing didn't awaken a lot of sympathy either. And that was all before Starscream started to speak and they discovered his sharp, no-nonsense, dry wit that only Ratchet seemed to appreciate.

"Well, this question usually means that one is about to ask a question that might be a touchy subject. It sort of gives an out for the one being asked."

Prowl saw that Starscream didn't get the idiom and leaned in to explain. – "give an out to someone means here giving the chance not to answer."

Starscream pondered a bit at that but nodded at the end, getting the concept fully. Politeness apparently frequently involved not saying clearly what one wanted, which confused the Pit out of him. But it was what they wanted… he shrugged a wing to himself and trilled a contemplative _strange/harmless/different_ note. Mechs were so strange sometimes.

"Asssk then."

"Thank you. Ratchet told me that Skywarp refused to have his vocalizer adjusted so he can learn Standard Cybertronian. While I fully accept that it is his decision, I'd very much like to know why."

"Becausss it corrruptsss ourrr voicesss."

"But you accepted it and Thundercracker too."

"Itsss diferrrent forrr him. My voisss væsss brrroken long ægo." – Starscream looked sad and none of the officers dared to ask where or when. – "And TeeCee sings very little, becausss his neverrr wasss high enough. But Skywarp hasss the mosst bjutifull voisss and singsss a lot off storiesss."

"Really? Ah'd like ta hear him singing once – if he agrees." – that was of course Jazz, never one to pass up something musical.

"Starssscream asssks."

A quick connection through the Trine bond, a _sing/story/query_ flowing from Starscream to Skywarp, who came back with a _happy/here/now/query_ to him. The notes were flatter this way, not accompanied by the wing movements but the meaning still got through; _place/Autobot/games_ and _Autobot/listen/query_. Skywarp loved singing the old stories and before he never cared about an occasional Autobot listening, since they didn't know what it was. But this was different, his Trine leader told him that they asked about it and wanted to hear his song intentionally, maybe even Star translating it.

Skywarp appeared then in the rec room in a flash of purple energies, creating a surprise as always, looking for Starscream at once. He was asking the other flier a hesitant _Starscream/speak/song/flat_language/query_ and Starscream acknowledged it with a _affirm/Autobots/hear/want_. He flicked his wings in a disbelieving _Autobots/story/want/query_ but Starscream answered with a calming flutter and an _Autobots/like/sing _and followed up with_ Autobots/like/story_. Skywarp snorted at that, but he knew that at least some of them liked music and singing, so it had to be partly true. He looked hesitantly at the officers around the table, then around the noisy rec-room and told Starscream _place/noise/bad_.

Sskywarrrp singsss but plæisss isss noisssy." – Starscream conveyed the complaint to the Autobots and Jazz immediately asked the room at large to quieten down a bit even if they were not interested in the performance. That of course created an interest and most mechs either silenced or left the rec room.

Skywarp almost preened at the sudden attention, forgetting even his ever-present nervousness. When everyone was more or less quiet, he started to sing. The Autobots have all heard the Seekers' everyday singsong voice and trilling conversations, but the song was different from that, richer, more complex, utilizing sounds and tones that made both Blaster and Jazz gasp and scramble to record it. It was a beautiful song, not only to listen to, but it also evoked something deep, something instinct-like even in the sparks of the Autobots. Optimus Prime fleetingly thought that it must have come deep from their shared ancestry, no matter how different frames and culture they had now. After all, they were of a same race, even though not many thought of it in the face of their differences.

"It isss the ssong off the firssst trine." – Starscream was speaking very quietly, so as not to disturb Skywarp. – "Sstarsssinger wasss th firssst Sseker who flew down from th highlændsss and mæde th firssst nessst in Sssonik Kanyonsss. He wasss ælone for long time ænd sssang sssædly to th starsss. He æsssked dem to give him a parrtnerrr ssso he væsss not ælone." – Starscream was obviously hard put to translate the song; he struggled with expressing the concepts and do it in Cybertronian at the same time. – "Sstarsssinger sæng so bjutifully that two starsss cæm down and ssspun æround him, dansssed to hisss song. He sssang to dem about the joysss off flying ænd floting in th ær and dey becæme curiusss." – Starscream stopped for a little, as he found it impossible to tell with the flat words what it felt like flying. While the Cybertronian words described actions and events better than the songs, they had very little to express the emotions, feelings and mental states that the Seekers considered more important and the songs were mainly about those. – "Th sssong tellsss a lot how it feelsss flying. I cæn't trænssslate that."

"Maybe another time you can try."

"Yesss. Ssso Sstarsssinger sæng until th' two starsss turned to Sssekerrsss. Dey learrrned to fly ænd became th' firssst trine."

The mechs around looked a bit startled by the sudden end to the story and its lack of action that they expected, but Optimus Prime found it interesting none the less. It gave an insight into the Seekers' processors, better than he could see it so far. Skywarp finished the song slightly after and Starscream trilled to him a _love/enjoy/approve_ and at his wordless preening added that _Autobots/like/story_. That most of them liked the song itself was clear to even Skywarp; Jazz expressed it with loud clapping even. The mechs around the rec room, who heard only the song nodded appreciating; it was a nice song and Skywarp's voice truly did it justice. Most of them heard the black Seeker's voice in full for the first time and it surprised quite a few mechs. It would really be a loss to change it just so he could learn to speak Cybertronian.

* * *

><p><strong>Sideswipe's prank<strong>

Sideswipe had a slight problem and just found out how to solve it. The black Seeker was sticking to his trine mates all the time and to get him alone, he'd have to make the other two do something that didn't include him. To this end, he suggested to Ironhide that the two Seekers who had ranged weapons should have target practice, just like everyone else from the crew. Ironhide agreed and brought up the matter with Prowl, who had some doubts about interaction between the weapons specialist and the Seekers, but he couldn't deny the necessity of the sessions, and he gave permission for it. The first time when they had this with Ironhide he made a point in being present to see how he would handle the fliers, but he had to give him this; the big red mech was completely professional with them, if a bit cold and the practice started calmly enough.

"Prowl, Ah won't bite 'em. You just go an' do your work an' Ah'll do mine."

"I'm not afraid that you'll _bite_ them, Ironhide. But they aren't the most comfortable around you and with good reason."

"Ah see, so you protect them."

"Accompany them."

"Whatever." – Ironhide turned towards the Seekers, examining their weapons. Thundercracker had a standard issue blaster, but Starscream's arm-weapons were something new. – "What are these?"

"Sssokvave called thessse null-ræysss."

"What do they do?"

"Mækesss mehss immobile."

"They don't do any damage? Not like Shockwave to design something like that."

"Nott hisss desssign. Ssstole itt sssomevere."

"Try it on those drones." – Ironhide programmed the drones for an evaluation scenario and the lesson commenced. Starscream shot quite well even in root mode, which he could never practice before, while Thundercracker was much less comfortable aiming this way. Soon they were deep in learning mode, the Seekers less jumpy and high-strung, and even Ironhide seemed to put aside his mistrust. Prowl was satisfied with how well things were turning out and left them for the rest of the practice.

Skywarp, in the meanwhile was amusing himself in the washracks that, just as Prowl suspected earlier, quickly became the favourite place for the cleanliness-loving Seekers. Since the hangar deck had no separate cleaning facilities, they had to go to the Ark itself, to the communal wash racks, where most of the mechs managed their cleaning after missions and it was the only place where the fliers regularly met with them. Because of this, Starscream made sure that they've always come together and well outside the joors when most mechs visited the place. But this time Skywarp thought that it would be just the thing to do while his Trine-mates were otherwise occupied.

He luxuriated in the warm cleaning fluid that pattered on his wings, causing a fuzzy, warm feeling that was almost sensual. Wings were so much more sensitive than ground mechs thought and Seekers loved tactile sensations. The warm shower felt even better than usual, as the fluid seemed to caress his plating. Skywarp wasn't really mindful of his surroundings as he enjoyed the sensation and the unexpected touch on his wing startled him badly. He jumped and turned at the same time, hitting the wall of the not quite wide enough stall with the other wing and screeched loudly at the unexpectedly painful feeling that broke his good mood so suddenly. There was no mech standing behind him, but he had only a nanoklik to register it before the ground suddenly seemed to run away from underneath his thrusters and he fell, hard.

It jarred the wings again, bending a tip painfully and that was the last straw for Skywarp who screeched and promptly warped away from the danger he couldn't even see. This time he kept his goal in mind and the violet flash deposited him in the Seekers' hangar, just outside the door to their private room. But the ground behaved strangely there too and Skywarp fell again as his thrustered pedes couldn't seem to keep the ground in a firm contact. His claws hooked into the wall-fixtures as he pulled himself up and promptly fell again, broadcasting his anxiety through the trine-bond _unknown/problem/help/request_ with mild but growing urgency undertoning it.

He didn't understand what was going on. He kept trying to stand, but the ground kept sliding out from under his pedes and soon his wings were dented and scratched from the various impacts on the floor or the walls, some of his claws broken as he tried to catch something. The more he fell, the louder he screeched and the more panicked he became and the less he was able to control his movements. That not even warping away solved the problem has never happened to him before.

In the firing range, Ironhide was working with the two Seekers, and the more time he spent with them, the more he appreciated Starscream's apparent perfectionism that made him practice almost with the same obsession as himself. Of course Ironhide didn't consider it an obsession, rather just a strong determination. The blue Seeker was slightly less gifted, but not wanting to slack while his Trine leader did his best, so he too worked hard to improve his aim. He was the first one, about halfway through the practice who lifted his helm, optics dimming unfocused and looked around with a faintly worried expression.

Starscream noticed Thundercracker's slight change in mood and trilled a quick _trouble/problem/query_ question to him. Lowering his arm-weapon the blue Seeker answered with _Skywarp/anxious/help/request_, as his bond with Skywarp was far older and therefore he felt the communication before Starscream. But by this time the whole trine bond erupted with Skywarp's panicky broadcast _fall/hurt/afraid_ and both Seekers winced in sympathy as they got the feedback from his injured wings.

"Musssst go." – he hissed to Ironhide and they both ran out of the firing range and towards their hangar, trying to calm Skywarp through the bond.

Entering the hangar they saw Bumblebee, hesitantly trying to approach the much bigger, heavier and dangerously flailing Skywarp who seemed to have difficulties to stand upright. The black and purple body gleamed of wetness that splashed all over the floor too – it was just a tiny bit different from the regular cleaning fluid as Starscream noticed as they hurried to catch their panicking trine-mate before he really injured himself. _Calm/hold/sit_, he trilled and _stand/negative/wet/bad_ while Thundercracker warbled a _help/here/together_ to him. His armor-plates were strangely slippery and Starscream hesitantly lifted a servo to his mouth, to taste the suspicious liquid that covered him. He never before tasted anything similar, but he was sure that it wasn't normal. Turning to Bumblebee he asked:

"Fluid isss ssstrænge. Knowsss thisss?"

Bumblebee came closer to have a look at the liquid and test it between two digits, and suddenly he remembered the feel of it – from personal experience no less. There was a pranking spree a while ago, when the twins – who else, he thought sarcastically – directed foamless human soap-products in great quantities into the wash-racks' pipe-works. Since they choose an odorless, transparent one, it took many as surprise to suddenly feel the floor slippery underneath for apparently no reason and they laughed at many a mech for their impromptu dance in the wet and skiddy place.

"It's called soap. Humans use it for washing and it is very slippery when mixed with most fluids."

"Humænsss? Wasss raksss don't have humans in?" – They managed to have Skywarp sit on the ground safely and petted him for calm, albeit with the cost of themselves becoming a bit slippery too. The stuff must have had amazing qualities, Bumblebee thought, to stick to them – well, rather slick them too on their dry plating.

"No, it was probably a prank. This stuff has no place in our wash racks."

"Humænsss prank usss?" – Starscream looked angrier and more dangerous by the klik.

"Varrrp hurrrtsss! Musssst rrrevenge!" – Thundercracker still spoke rarely although he could; but he usually left the talking to Starscream. But he looked furious right then and perfectly capable, not to mention willing, to take apart the culprits plate by plate, bolt by bolt. Bumblebee had a sudden idea that the twins – if it was their doing - probably underestimated the protectiveness and the resulting anger of the Seekers.

"No, not the humans… they couldn't have managed it. Feels like a twins' prank but please don't act prematurely! I'll tell it to Prowl. Do you need medical attention?"

"No. Varrp vill heal."

Skywarp was trilling softly to his Trine-mates, his _Sideswipe/feel/sure_ of course not understandable to Bumblebee, but the two Seekers got it clearly. Starscream answered to him with an affirmative _know/feel/sure,_ but calmed Thundercracker with a _Autobot/deal/different/wait_. The blue Seeker wasn't happy, but had couldn't act against his Trine leader.

* * *

><p><strong>Trine wrath<strong>

"Starscream, please don't do anything rash. I have to investigate this to know for sure who the culprit is."

"Sssidsssvipe wass, ve're sssure."

"You can't be sure, Starscream. There is no proof."

"Whatsss profff? He wasss around Sssskyvarrrp, he plæned ssomethingss, he æsssked Ironhide to præktisss with usss two. Ve knows. Ve feelsss. He reeksss of pranksss."

"I know that he is suspicious but that's not proof." – Prowl knew that he was fighting a losing battle. The Seekers simply didn't understand what he meant by proof. They judged mechs according to how they behaved and what they felt about them and he had to admit, this instinctive opinion was usually fairly accurate. Like in this case, when he was about ninety per cent sure that it was indeed Sideswipe behind the prank.

"But ve knowsss!"

"If you are sure of this, then what is it that you intend to do with Sideswipe?" – he was really curious how the Seeker wanted to solve this.

"Wing for wing isss the rulesss."

He should have expected this – for mechs like the Seekers it was the logical way. Harm one and you get it back. – "But he doesn't have wings."

"Ssssimilærrr then." – Starscream looked very serious. – "Ve mussst not leave itsss unpæid. Varrrp wæsss hurt and Trrrin leaderrr mussst act. Iff not, TeeCee vill chælleng me."

"Can you give me one orn to make enquiries?"

"Yesss. But no moarrr."

Thundercracker understood Starscream, he really did. He knew that the ground mechs acted differently and their freedom was new enough so he was secretly a bit still afraid of things go back to the worse if they misbehaved. Still, he couldn't let this _insult/harm/attack_ go unpunished, not as Skywarp's mate for as far as he could remember. The two urges were warring in him, making the blue Seeker acutely uncomfortable. He curled around Skywarp, petting each other's wings, while they waited for Starscream to come back.

When he did, Thundercracker asked him _twin/hurt/reason/query_, because he really didn't understand why Sideswipe, who was watching them interestedly would cause hurt to Skywarp. He expected the red mech to approach them in quite another way and it wouldn't even have been against their wishes – but then he remembered that scene in the rec room. Starscream tried to explain it, his _play/game/surprise_ and _plan/surprise/laugh_ was the closest he could get to the idea of the prank. He added _game/hurt/accident_ to make sure the intent came through to the other two. It took him long enough to understand.

Thundercracker got the idea; when winglets played, they did such things, played games that involved surprising their brothers and those very rarely did end up in accidents, where one of them got hurt. But even knowing this, he couldn't imagine adult, grown mechs doing it – and especially outside their flock or trine. Seekers of separate trines or flocks simply didn't interact with each other, only very rarely and with their leaders present and allowing it. Like in courting. But the red Autobot had better not court Skywarp, he thought with growing anger. _Courting/negative/sure_, Starscream, who followed his mental musings through the bond, trilled to him. _Mating/intend/possible_, he continued, adding _Autobots/lack/trines_ and _mechs/play/all/trine/negative_. Changing the focus from it, with _mate/negative/bond/pair_ he sang at last sadly and Thundercracker agreed – he'd have liked to see Prowl with them too.

But the next orn their self-restraint went to the wind. Prowl was forced to tell Starscream that he found no deciding evidence of Sideswipe being behind the prank although there were signs pointing to it. He then surprised the Seekers - and Jazz too - by asking them to keep their payback to what would amount to a prank too. Starscream told him that even if he found proof, the usual punishment of an orn or so in the brig or double shifts for a while would not have satisfied them anyway; for the Seekers that would have been totally unconnected. So they were free to act as long as Sideswipe wasn't harmed. Much.

The occasion came on their next patrol. The Trine soared high above the ground, sensors sweeping over it to see if any Decepticons were nearby, ready to do their usual mischief. They found none of that, only something else, but in Thundercracker's opinion even better; a red and a gold cars speeding on an empty stretch of a highway. It took almost no time and no conversation for the Trine to form a decision – that was after all the point of the bond to act immediately as the need arose.

Skywarp teleported straight on top of the red car, grabbing him and jumping again high up in the air, to rejoin his trine. He held on to the car until it transformed and Sideswipe started to yell, frightened, but angry at the same time. Skywarp then hissed at him something angry-sounding and promptly dropped the red mech. Sideswipe felt his spark spin faster as he started to tumble down towards the distant ground and curses spewed from him continuously. Damned Seeker was killing him for a slagging prank? Sunstreaker screamed to him through the bond, but he was helpless to do anything to stop the fall.

Suddenly his ankle was grabbed and a painful jerk pulled him out of the fall and upwards again. A flash of dark blue metal above told him that it was Thundercracker who caught him and he was feeling thankful for the save, before he noticed that the flier was taking him… wait, why up? _::Put me down on the ground!::_ – he commed to the Seeker, hoping that he would understand. But he was still going up and he saw the other two Seekers circling around him, Skywarp still snarling and hissing. He was ready to swear never to prank any of them again, when the strong hand that's been holding on to his ankle joint let him go and again, he tumbled uncontrollably down towards the ground screaming again. Apparently you prank one Seeker and you have three out to get you dealing revenge. Bad odds.

Another eternally long breem freefalling before another strong jerk and a strong grab on his pedes. This time the white wings told him that it was Starscream, and Sideswipe started to feel apprehensive. Taken up again and he didn't bother to comm him this time, fearing what was to come. Yeah, the slagger let him go again, plunging for some more terrifying kliks. He was swearing again, too. Damned jets, they were playing with him. He hoped. He very much hoped that he would be caught again before he became so much spare parts on the ground.

The ground was far too close this time. Shit, he was going to crash, hard. Sunstreaker was shouting obscenities, staring upwards as Sideswipe fell. He couldn't catch him in time. He didn't. A purple flash enveloped him again and he was set down on the ground. Unharmed. He didn't even have a dent to show for the ordeal. A rattled processor and a hoarse vocalizer maybe. The three Seekers were already teks away, not even looking back. Sunstreaker arrived then, looking him over, shaking his brother out of his stupor. Sideswipe was dazed and for the first time in his function looking scared.

"Next time I want to prank a Seeker, remind me of this..." – he gasped once more but a ghost of a smirk has already appeared on his faceplates – "…and I'll get a parachute."

* * *

><p><strong>Note<strong>: for the sake of this last part, I'm gonna say that in this verse, Sideswipe doesn't have a jetpack. :-)


	6. Part VI

****Note**:** plain _Italics_ is Seeker-song, while _::comm::_

* * *

><p><strong>Part VI.<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Suspicions and reality<strong>

The ground looked almost undisturbed when Thundercracker returned to the place where Starscream saw the Constructicons doing something. Only the planet's vegetation that he found strange and smelly anyway was disturbed – the taller things cut down and the smaller green things broken, trampled and oozing sticky saps on the rocks. But humans also made places similar sometimes, so the Seeker wasn't truly concerned about the sticky green things, only making sure not to land on them and let them dirty his thrusters. There were no mechs in sight and his sensors didn't show one either. Circling the area the blue Seeker made careful records for Prowl and turned back towards the Ark.

The big excavator moving out of the cave opening was caught by his sensors just before he got outside their range. Thundercracker hesitated. He never saw the Constructicons' earth forms before but that vehicle seemed far too big for a human one. Making a lazy roll and a slow turn, waggling his wings like a youngling, like he was simply enjoying flying, he pointed the recorder towards the construction vehicle again. It hurried from the cave that it emerged from and soon disappeared into another hole in the ground and the Seeker was fairly sure that this was no regular behaviour for such an earth vehicle.

As he started to examine the surroundings again, this time disregarding the area with the trampled vegetation, his attention was caught by a rock-face nearby. The hillock looked like many on Earth, with rolling sides and a green cover – but one side of it had a small gorge leading inwards, enclosed with slanted rock-wall and it was strange. It was like the canyons that the Seekers preferred back in Cybertron and it was a stark contrast with the lush hillside around it. Thundercracker didn't know a single thing about geology but still it felt odd to his instincts and therefore suspicious.

Nevertheless he did what he could and staying above the area would only cause the mechs around to be suspicious, so Thundercracker left the area slowly, working it into his regular patrol route. It was fairly close to the ocean, that smelly, wet thing that the Cons lived under – the blue Seeker wobbled a bit in his flight, not even wanting to imagine what it would feel like staying there for any length of time – and in fact in the direction of where they usually came from into battles.

Returning to the Ark he passed over the recorder to Prowl and attempted to give a verbal report too; it was rare that he had an opportunity to speak Cybertronian aloud and Prowl was one of the few mechs patient enough to make sense of his garbled grammar and hissed pronunciation.

"Rokksss ssstrænge vall mækesss. Like nessst plaisss shimilarrr."

"What do you mean? Like bird nests? On trees?"

"No orrrgænikkksss! Sssekersss nesss! Inna rokksss."

Prowl was thoughtfully spinning backwards the recording when a talon knocked onto the screen suddenly and he freezed the picture.

"Derrrr!" – Thundrecracker exclaimed – "Rokk fæse! Like nessst plæisss!"

It looked like a normal rock-face to Prowl and he didn't really understand the Seeker's excitement about it. Not until he looked at it closer and realized that what he took to be just shadows, was actually a concealed opening among the rough edges of the stone, high enough to be useless for ground mechs but low enough to be inconspicuous if he disregarded the blue Seeker's instinct that told him exactly what it was. Besides which he had to consider Scavenger's presence and the other two openings in the ground that signified substantial tunneling-work underground.

Prowl started to consider the available facts and shifted through theories that could go with them. Why would the Cons need a visibly sprawling base separate from the Nemesis but close to it and on the mainland? Were they considering moving? As far as they knew the Nemesis wasn't even full to necessitate a dangers of a new base, but the area was fairly much devoid of human habitats and closer to it still than the Ark. If it was going to be a forward base then they choose well the place and if not for Starscream's suspicions they could still be hidden. Prowl thanked Thundercracker the report and headed out to discuss the matter with Optimus Prime.

* * *

><p><strong>Plans and reality<strong>

They didn't have enough time to properly spy out the new base and determine its function along with Megatron's intentions before the next alarm that told them of a Decepticon raid, one of the usual ones for energon. The Cons swarmed around an old-style, fossil fuel burning plant, packing up the hydrocarbon derivatives just as much as their converter made energon from it. Cybertronian bodies only needed energon for fuel, but for nonsentient machinery they used oil and various chemicals just as much as humans.

Their Seekers circled overhead like overgrown vultures and Prowl noted with interest how the two Trines carefully avoided confrontation, heading the other way once they saw each other. Dividing his attention between the slowly developing and fairly low-key battle and the observation of their flying corps Prowl started to notice details in their behaviour that, he was sure, no mech else cared to notice before. For once he was thankful for the Prime and Megatron occupying their time with the usual banter and insults, because it gave him time to watch the Seekers.

It was obvious that Starscream directed his fliers much more effectively than the Cons, who didn't give any freedom to the Trine and controlled their targets and fire from the ground. Since Starscream described and demonstrated to the Autobots how they hunted naturally and what attacks they could expect from average Seekers, the bots avoided the Con Seekers with relative ease. On the other servo, his Trine was making serious injuries and casualties in the Con ranks with the ranged attacks and the unorthodox maneuvers.

Prowl soon realized that Soundwave came to the same conclusion and started to direct heavier fire towards the tricoloured Seeker, correctly deducing the reason for the sudden improvement in their effectiveness. He alerted Starscream to this and saw that he drew his Trine back, making far more cautious attacks afterwards. Starscream apparently had a healthy dose of wariness towards the telepath's abilities and cunning.

Turning his attention back to the battle proper, Prowl saw that Prime and Megatron advanced to the heavy blows part of their usual choreography, meaning that soon the tyrant would be yelling to retreat with the stolen energon and fuels. He sent Bluestreak to cover the usually reckless twins who advanced into the midst of the Combaticons and were in effect greatly outnumbered. Absentmindedly he noted the cursing from Ratchet, reacting to the same thing - the medic was starting to repeat himself.

Suddenly he saw the Decepticon Trine swooping down on the minibots, seemingly out of the blue and scattering them. The Seekers took off fast after they saw the minis regaining their composure facing the much larger fliers and lifting their weapons - but Ramjet wasn't quite fast enough to avoid the fire. With a pained screech he fell from the loose formation and one thruster spewing black smoke, he crashed hard into the ground. The other two turned back as well to help him out but at that klik Megatron gave the order to retreat.

Prowl watched their wobbling flight and agitated screeches as they fought against their orders to follow the instinct to save their mate. He knew from Starscream that Seekers didn't get virtually any medical attention and those who fell on a battlefield could only hope that their own self-healing could take care of the injuries and they could hobble back after the other troops. In any case, they weren't going to take the injured Con Seeker with them, that much was obvious.

Starscream too saw Ramjet's fall, but he saw something else too, that the grounders could not notice; that Ramjet's flight path was such that put him straight into the line of fire, like he did it deliberately. He also noticed that his Trine leader didn't mind him separating from them to do so. Circling over the Autobots who were helping out the humans in the cleanup, he watched the retreating Cons, especially the two Coneheads. Thrust left his second there awfully easily, at least for Seeker standards, struggling against the orders and the punishing jolts more for show than for real.

"Prrrrol, the Seeekerrrss ære uppp to sssomthing." – he commed to Prowl, while they continued to move back towards the Ark, leaving only a few bots to help. – "Rrramjettt isss not dat bæd æsss he showsss."

"Do you think it is a trap?"

"No trappp. No Consss trappp."

"Then what?"

"Ssshuldna leave hisss…" – Starscream warbled the rest of his sentence in Seeker into the comm, something he rarely did lately.

"Starscream, I didn't understand that."

"Leave the plæisss. Warrrp commm bakk laterrr. Ssssee whatsss with Cosss."

"I take it it is a Seeker thing…" – Prowl surmised. They were going back anyway and the downed Seeker was not in a conspicuous place. Starscream would tell it in his own time – the tactician knew better than push the Seeker before he was ready to explain. In a few breems he noticed that there were only two Seekers flying overhead, ostensibly playing their usual exuberant games among the clouds; since they were white-red and red-blue respectively, it was Skywarp who's gone missing, probably back to the fallen Con Seeker. Prowl didn't for a nanoklik suspected their loyalty, but he kept his observation to himself, as he knew that there were still some mechs who would, had they known about it.

* * *

><p><strong>Seekers and reality<strong>

Skywarp disappeared from above the Autobots with a silent, purple flash to reappear in the battlefield that they've just left after the Decepticons retreated. He landed quietly among the ruins and immediately went to hide among the buildings. He kept down the urge to swat the humans that milled around – he understood well that for some reason or other they were not to be harmed even accidentally. Starscream told them that all the Autobots were adamant on this point and if they wanted to live with them and be free they had to keep this rule strictly.

Skywarp felt the urge to hunt every time he saw a small organic move about, but kept reminding himself that their sticky, red fluids were not fuel and that they made a mess in the thrusters if stepped on. Prowl was shocked to hear that description but Starscream explained to him that they knew about it from experiences with the ones called animals – albeit for them the humans seemed the same thing – and it was usually accidental anyway before they were more careful to land. These orns he was used to them enough that overcoming the hunting urge was almost as automatic as the hunt itself.

Quietly he moved to the coordinates where the Con Seeker crashed, finding him much in the same position. He could transform before crashing and now he lay on his side, face down and wings behind on the ground. One of them had a nasty gash and it was bent inwards a bit and Skywarp grimaced in sympathy. But it was not the wing-injury that kept him down; that was his left thruster, blackened from the shot and one side split open fully to expose torn and burnt wires and innards. It didn't look good, it must have hurt like Pit and self-healing would need quite a few more joors to slowly mend it on its own.

Squatting down beside the other, fully in his sight, should he open his optic covers, Skywarp tentatively reached out with his claws to scratch lightly a blue servo, accompanied by a light and quiet _greeting/enemy/negative/hurt/query_. He watched the red optics flicker to life and shuffled a bit backwards to give him his space. The blue flier regarded him for a few kliks and warbled a low-key _hurt/left/truce_ back to him. He also motioned his thruster and whistled an uncertain _heal/query_/_leave_. Skywarp shook his helm, then remembered that he learned that gesture from the Autobots and flicked his left wing in negation.

He could do nothing with the Seeker's thruster. _Skywarp/here/heal/negative_. The Con jet dipped his upper wing in understanding but Skywarp continued. _Autobot/place/heal/affirm_. He could understand the fear that flickered in the downed jet's optics before he answered _hope/Autobots/heal_ and _Starscream/offer/safe/place_. Skywarp nodded and dipped a wing in answer. Just as Starscream suspected, the blue jet flew into the line of fire deliberately so that he could remain behind and they could sing of some matters. _Skywarp/take/Ramjet _and_ Autobot/place/heal._ No more was needed to sing here between them. He touched the other's servo again and a klik later only the purple flash was left behind them.

Ramjet felt the Trine link lock down as Thrust and Dirge left the area. They had hoped that he would be left with an injury that their masters knew that would heal itself in a few more joors when he could fly back to the Decepticon place. He had to do it, because, although Dirge offered too, they could never leave their third behind and it was inconceivable that the Trine leader would abandon them either. He had a few tense breems as he saw the Autobots retreat just after their side did the same; if he was just left there, it would be a wasted opportunity.

But when he powered down a bit to help his healing along, he felt the air quietly pop beside him and shortly after the light touch on his left servo. He identified the black Seeker as the trine-third and let him come back closer after the other retreated into a respectful distance. He had strange gestures, unseekerlike and he was more assured and confident than any Seeker that Ramjet saw in a very long time. Not quite true, he thought, Starscream was the same as this one, proud even in chains with an unbeatable spirit flaming in his optics. Maybe they truly had freedom with the Autobots… Ramjet knew that Thrust didn't dare to hope freedom, only a better place, better masters than they presently had. But he did. He saw it in Starscream's optics and he believed his song.

He believed this black Seeker too when he offered to take him to the Autobot place, where they lived, to heal his thruster and maybe sing with that proud Trine leader. Ramjet shuddered as he remembered that it would have to involve their flock leader too. Megatron was bad news every time they saw him and he took notice of them and no matter what Starscream promised, he couldn't help but be apprehensive. He was as big as Megatron, the only ground mechs who actually stood taller than the Seekers and outweighing them by a fair amount. Seeker society is deeply and strongly affected by physical strength; the trine and flock leaders had the duty of protecting their own and it required strength, cunning and technique – besides speed and maneuverability.

The purple flash that enveloped them came as no surprise to the Conehead Seeker; Skywarp was known for his talent and used it in battles many times. The feeling was new though and not at all agreeable, especially on his already taxed systems. A low growl left his mouth as he was deposited in a bright place and set on a table that looked and felt far too much a lab table to be comfortable on it. Ramjet panicked. His arms were more or less unhurt and he pushed himself up and rolled over to be free of the table; he's never been is Shockwave's lab back in Darkmount but he knew enough other Seekers who had – and wished not to know the experience firsthand.

_Calm/safe/harm/negative_ came a hurried warble from his right, in the beautiful voice of Skywarp and Ramjet stopped fleeing further, if only in an incredulous shock. Was the black Seeker joking? But a deeper, also calm voice also sang _bright/place/heal_ to him and he saw Skywarp's blue mate on the other side. It finally started to convince him that they truly meant the place to be safe. The third bot, a mech stood behind them and said something that he didn't understand but the tone wasn't too friendly. Ramjet hurriedly put the table between them.

_Healer/friend/help_ came their assurance, while Thundercracker was speaking to the Autobot, to Ramjet's shock speaking tonelessly in their flat language. The mech answered him in the same language, still sounding angry. Skywarp added a conspiratorial _mech/manner/bad_ accompanied with a small smirk. The small joke convinced the Con Seeker of their well-meaning more than their assurances and the calmly swooshing wings and he hesitantly sat on the indicated metallic table.

It took a few more scares only before Ratchet could fix the badly injured thruster and even more reassurances before he let him touch his wings, but after a few tense breems they were ready. Thundercracker was translating the best he could; Ratchet understood that it was a Trine thing that Starscream couldn't be there at first, something to do with being a leader while their guest only a trine second. As time went on with their Seekers, more and more mechs realized that under the rough and vicious exterior the fliers had a complex society that wasn't technical in nature but meant that they had quite elaborate social interactions.

He also noticed that Skywarp and Thundercracker managed to put the Con Seeker at ease, although he was still quite jittery with him touching his frame, especially the wings. There was talk about the med-bay being similar to Shockwave's lab, which he protested at first, but in hindsight he could understand; for their perceptions the bright lighting, the freestanding berths and the multitude of tools would probably not make it any different from a scientific laboratory. When he was ready with the damage, Skywarp warped them all to the hangar that was their home where they could talk – or sing – whatever they needed to discuss with Optimus too.

* * *

><p><strong>Speech and reality<strong>

Megatron, despite of the energon that they managed to acquire in the last battle, was not happy. Not that he was happy that often, but Soundwave's report put him into a particularly bad mood. The SIC couldn't tell if they lost another fragging Seeker for good or he would be able to come back later, but the fact still remained that the Autobot Trine was far more effective with Starscream in it than any of their own.

That Seeker was an anomaly and an outright danger too. He was frighteningly intelligent, so much so the tyrant was forced to admit to himself that it was more than even some of his own soldiers in terms of cunning and tactics. Analyzing the battle it soon became clear that the Seeker lead his fliers with not just determination but purposefully and clearly cooperating with the ground mechs.

"Proposing: terminate Seeker soonest." – Soundwave absolutely concurred with Megatron in assessing the dangers of the newly formed Autobot Trine. Not only he was intelligent but he seemingly improved the performance of the already dangerous blue Seeker and the teleporter, Skywarp.

"Won't be easy. He seems to be able to avoid ground fire easily and our mechs are not trained to fire on such flying targets. He is slagging fast too." – Onslaught was rarely seen admitting any shortcomings in the troops he lead but it was a fact that they all knew. Seekers were just never so many in the enemy camp to be worth training the soldiers to fight against them.

"Tell Shockwave to make some flying drones at once, for target practice."

Soundwave and Onslaught looked at each other in silence, both wondering about the same thing. Where exactly Megatron imagined that target practice, in the sunken Nemesis or the still-secret, underground base? The TIC silently refused to be the one voicing that slight problem; he was currently in Megatron's favour and he didn't want to lose it over such a problem. They could always find a deserted stretch of land somewhere, even on this organic mudball, teeming with life.

"As you ordered, Lord Megatron."

"And while you are at it, have him send another Trine over. It is time to up the Earth campaign. We've been patient long enough. It is our destiny to finish the Autobots forever!"

Another resigned look passed between SIC and TIC as they respectfully listened to Megatron falling into one of his grand speeches yet again. As time has gone by, these had less and less bearing to reality, disregarding totally the situation they were in on Earth and Shockwave too over on Cybertron. As the war went on and numbers dwindled the more realist-thinking and statistically minded Soundwave soon realized that the Autobots' way of caring for the wounded and not letting anyone deactivate paid off more in the long term that the so-called Decepticon way.

While their ranks started to thin out, both from vicious infighting for ranks and positions and lack of proper medical attention to the battle-wounded mechs, the Autobots mostly retained their troops and even honed the former civilians to be fine fighters; and the overwhelming numbers that Decepticons started out with came down by this time to be actually less than the enemy forces. The officers could all see this process, it was only Megatron who seemed oblivious to the carefully presented statistics that Soundwave gave him, in hopes of opening his optics to the problem. The tyrant was amazingly shortsighted to anything that he didn't want to see.

Shockwave, who used to control most of Cybertron was actually more or less entrenched and besieged in Darkmount and instead of reviving the dead sectors, he barely survived on the energon that they could send him via the space bridge. If not for the remaining Seekers and consequently his supremacy in the air, he would have been overrun a few vorns ago, after Megatron's increasingly often demanded reinforcements to Earth. The drones that he made and insisted on making still were good for spying and menial work but they have never became a real force on the battlefields.

The Autobots' latest maneuver with turning their own Seeker against them with the help of their pair threatened just that, their remaining strength in the battles, the air power. Soundwave knew that they managed to get their hand onto a fallen Seeker on Cybertron too, albeit the fate of that was still unclear. But it made even more important to get rid of the dangerously clever Starscream and prevent the further crumbling of their air force. It was high time Megatron did something with that problem.

"With this offensive we can be victorious and finish the war soon!" – Megatron finished the speech and in good spirits again, dismissed his officers to their tasks. His mind was full of plans and plots like always after such episodes; the rousing oratory was as often for his own sometimes lacking enthusiasm as for the troops. Ohh, he was still sure to win over the Prime's bumbling group of idiots, but the war started to be too long and boring even for his taste. But with the new Seekers and removing that annoyingly proficient one from the air, he would quickly gain the initiative and thus begin the final push for victory.

* * *

><p><strong>Wishes and reality<strong>

Sideswipe did learn from the payback that the Seekers put him through. He learned to hide his involvements better. As time went by the Seekers interested him more and more and with observing them he gained some respect toward them as well. Most mechs by this time accepted their sentience and status among the Autobot army, but the majority still held them in contempt, considering said sentience barely more than that of clever animals'. Cybertronian society never had the concept of primitive tribes and natural people, as development was fairly much the same from the capital city Iacon till the last village in the Kaon valley; and of course they all had technical civilization. Consequently, before a mech life-form was either sentient or an animal with no grey zones in between. At least before the Seeker flocks were discovered…

Their human friends and those who were more familiar with Earth and its greater variety of development among the different parts of the planet had made the connection and analogue with the less-developed, natural tribes. They consequently considered the Seekers rather like the primitive humans who lived in the Amazonas jungles, not even knowing about the technical civilization that teemed on the rest of the planet. It was an apt simile, even down to the rich oral history and its keepers, like Skywarp who had a special place in the society.

Sideswipe though, didn't care overasmuch about such scientific theories; he preferred to make his observations firsthand and draw his unscientific, but usually accurate conclusions from those. What he saw was three clever but instinctual individuals who, discounting the technical side of it, lived their lives much as the rest of the Autobots. Of course there were differences; their greater size, the wings and the distinctly tribal lifestyle meant a more physical, open and simple life. Sideswipe was strongly drawn to those sensual and fascinating wings that betrayed every emotion that they felt – and since emotions were the greatest part of their existence, it meant that the wings were in almost constant motion.

They were also incredibly sensitive, far more so than most mechs thought and the red warrior felt some shame at the clips that they'd callously put on them to make them obey. His best guess was that the fixtures on the wings probably had the level of sensitivity that mechs only had in the spike and valve. Only these were outside, unprotected and at the same time always accessible to a simple touch. Wearing one's most sensitive erogenous zones on one's appendages probably made for interesting life. No wonder that they were so salacious.

Sideswipe envied them for those easy touches. He had a lively interfacing life, what with Sunstreaker and whomever fancied the always popular twins, so he couldn't say that he had a shortage of berth-partners. Still, he watched enviously, sometimes downright hungrily as the oblivious Seekers caressed and petted each other almost continuously. It wasn't simple lust though, albeit he hardly dared to examine his own motivation; more like a deep-seated yearning for the obviously soft affection that they had towards each other, despite of the cruel and humiliating circumstances that they were forced to endure so long.

He could relate to that perfectly; as former gladiators, they had an almost parallel life. They had lived in cells, much like the Seeker cages. They were beaten, sometimes tortured even to obey, just like the fliers. They had to fight others' battles, for others' amusement. And they too only had each other. But being what they were, the twins never outwardly showed affection towards each other, as it would have been used against them. The Seekers never stopped showing it.

But Sideswipe never learned to express emotions in basically any way, just like his twin. He usually pranked the object of his interests, joked with or about him, or just bluntly told Bluestreak that they were taking him for a ride. He pranked the Seeker too, not out of bad intentions, just because he knew of no other way to get close to someone, to garner their attention. Too bad the fliers didn't understand him, or rather totally misunderstood his approach the first time. But he wouldn't give up.

And now there was a new flier with them, in their hangar. Sideswipe didn't recognize him, only the Decepticon markings on the visibly twitching wings. Also, Optimus was there, so the clever one, Starscream was up to something again. Sideswipe admired the Seekers, envied them a little too, but Starscream was a class of his own even among the beautiful fliers. The mech was - in that naïve-seeker way – more devious than himself. But the red warrior gladly let the cunning jet alone – he was far more interested in the black and purple one, Skywarp. Maybe with his mate, the blue Seeker too.

-o-o-o-

Jazz shook his helm slowly, as he watched Sideswipe on the monitors, stalking the Seekers for the last few orns. He was tenacious but if he kept this approach up, he'd get hurt soon and more than just his pride, like the last time. He still didn't understand how the fliers worked – well, not that many on the Ark truly did. Maybe Prowl had the best grasp of it. He even admitted that the red twin was truly trying, just not in the best ways. His sneaking attempt was laughable and not only for the spec ops commander but to anyone with a working sensor; the big, flaming red warrior build just wasn't the best suited to be unobtrusive.

He decided to help him along; after all he intended no harm to them and Prowl did have a long dressing down to him which included some pointer about their behaviour. Also, as he heard from Prowler, the Seekers weren't exactly against casual interfacing provided he didn't try to separate Skywarp from TC. Being with two Seekers… now the thought caused some interest piquing in the saboteur too, much as he felt Prowlie's answering disapproval in the bond. He turned to the bored Sunstreaker, his partner in the monitor room's boring afternoon shift.

"Sunny, do ya mind your red copy being humbled again?"

"What is that glitch doing now?" – Sunstreaker was at best an unwilling accomplice in most of Sideswipe's pranks, usually going along only, because he could never say no to his twin.

"Trying ta grab a Seeker again… or two."

"Idiot." – Sunstreaker was wearing his trademark scowl – "They won't be letting him go so easily again."

"Especially as they have a Con Seeker too, in there and Optimus with Wheeljack."

"What are they doing?" – that combination of mechs was unusual in itself, enough to make the golden twin momentarily forget his brother's plans and pique his curiosity."

"The Conehead Seekers want to defect too. They try to find a way to deal with their wing-clips."

"Even more Seekers? Sides' is dead." – he didn't look too ruffled by the prospect though.

"Or ya can help him before he makes a big mistake."

"Me?" – Sunstreaker looked incredulously at the TIC – "Despite what you all think, I do not have a death-wish."

"I didna meant ta help him in a prank. But he can't seem ta believe that simply talking ta the Seekers could work best."

"Why would he want to talk with them?"

"Ya really can't see?" – Jazz held his helm in his servos. He really couldn't tell which twin was more oblivious to their own feelings. – "He wants those Seekers bad. Really bad."

Jazz could almost see the way that idea went through Sunstreaker' processor, and the resulting incredulous, but interested perking up. The golden twin was quite predictable sometimes and anyone that Sideswipe fancied interested him too – the effect of the twin bond and their split-half sparks. Besides he couldn't deny that the Seekers looked, from the mech's viewpoint beautiful and exotic. The experienced TIC saw the thought turning in Sunstreaker's processor and taking root. Maybe he wouldn't need to intervene more, albeit the golden twin wasn't the best in expressing his true feelings either. But maybe between the two of them, they'd manage to do something less than a catastrophe.

* * *

><p><strong>Dreams and reality<strong>

"We have an incoming message from near space. I mean coming from within this solar system." – Blaster was surprised by it, as such messages were so rare to be almost unheard of – there were no intelligent species or space stations nearby, aside from themselves on Earth. They usually had communication from Cybertron when the space-weather allowed that connection, but because of the huge distances involved, it was rarely possible. If they could manage to talk to Ultra Magnus once a year it was considered fortunate.

"What does it say?" – Prowl didn't worry about it too much; Decepticons wouldn't announce their coming and neither would any other hostile races.

"It is an automated message, asking for directions and coordinates to land." – surprising in itself, but Blaster continued – "But it does have Autobot codes, albeit quite old ones."

"Can you determine if it is forged or a real one?"

"It seems authentic to me." – Blaster answered after a few tests on the signal.

"Ask them who they are and where did they come from."

"They don't answer. It remains an automatic signal."

"Strange. If they were truly Autobots, they'd answer."

"Their communications equipment could be damaged."

"Give them directions to the desert. We will be there to receive them." – Prowl was already on his way to discuss the matter with Optimus and organize the welcome party, ready for every eventuality. They could be anything from injured Autobots till plotting Decepticons and it was his job to make preparations for any possible scenario.

In a few joors a big Autobot party left the Ark, followed by their Seeker Trine – their Decepticon 'guest' has already left the Ark after a lengthy discussion with Prime and a few officers. Starscream was told to hang back and don't be conspicuous, and only come closer if Prowl gave him a signal or a threat was detected. The Seeker was curious about the transport shuttle that was expected, but upon hearing that it was probably just a dumb machine and no Seeker, he lost the interest. He's seen before cargo planes that mechs sometimes employed.

The three of them flew a bit farther from the place where the Autobots waited. Starscream noticed that some of them, like the twins were hidden around the area, like they wanted to attack the new mechs. He didn't really understand it, since Prowl told them that they were probably Autobots like them. Starscream also felt a kind of foreboding, like something was approaching that was important for him and it made him jittery and anxious. They circled a bit farther from the landing point, but close enough to see if something happened.

He saw the big, white plane coming down from very high, higher than they could fly in the dark coldness that was over their domain, the warmer air. It was huge, probably dwarfing them all on the ground, even Thundercracker. _Big/strong/Seeker/query_, came the inquisitive trill from Skywarp. _Big/white/Seeker/negative_, he answered as Prowl told him, but he wasn't completely sure. The flier did remind him of something… something he saw a very long time ago, in a far away place, but Starscream just couldn't remember. _Big/white/mechs/inside_/_query_ – Thundercracker screeched surprised as the white flier landed and bots came out from him.

The other Autobots greeted them and Starscream could see no sign of trouble at all – in fact they all looked happy to see each other. _Big/white/carry/Autobo…_ he warbled, but before he could even finish it, the impossible happened. The white flier folded in on itself and transformed, like they could, and no cargo plane was ever able to – and became a winged mech, like them. _Big/white/Seeker/negative _and_ query/affirm/negative_ – Skywarp sang again, clearly doubting his earlier statement about the mech.

But Starscream didn't answer to his Trine-mate. He stopped in the air, almost stalled his engines, something he hasn't done since his seekerling-age. Losing some altitude before folding into his mech form and with a burst from his thrusters he shot towards the distant ground. The big white and red flier barely had enough time to look up before he collided to him, trilling continuously and with his momentum, pushing them both to the ground.

It must have looked like an attack, because as soon as he realized what was happening, Prowl started shouting. - "Starscream, no! He is no enemy! They are not Decepticons! Stop it!"

The newly arrived Autobots also reacted at once and strongly – coming from Cybertron they were all too familiar with the Decepticon Seekers attacking them, Ultra Magnus even thought that he recognized the tricoloured flier in particular as enemy. Consequently, many of them promptly pulled out their various blasters to shoot the seemingly inimical Seeker. Unfortunately for all of them present, one, Hot Rod was fast enough to fire a shot before he heard Prime's order for everyone to stand down.

Starscream in the meanwhile didn't even dream that his action would be considered an attack. All he saw was the big flier whom he finally remembered as seen in his very first battle, saving his wings and later being shot down himself on the chaotic battlefield. He thought that the big flier was deactivated, because he never came back with the other injured Seekers. Through the vorns, the training and torture he went through, he forgot the jet, with whom he never even sang, didn't know his designation even, but still felt drawn in a strange way.

Finding him here and now was a miracle and Starscream totally forgot that he was among Autobots who didn't understand their trills and warbles, didn't know about his history with the newly arrived flier and mistook his enthusiasm for belligerence. In the back part of his processor, he registered Prowl's shout, but since he wasn't attacking the white flier, he didn't even think of stopping. The other was surprised, but remembering Starscream and understanding his enthusiastic _greet/welcome/back_ and _belief/big/white/dead_, he knew that Starscream meant no harm.

Not so the other Autobots. Hot Rod's shot found a wing and the joyful trills were changed to painful, screeching _hurt/wing/enemy_. It wasn't a dangerous shot, finding no important point, and as wings were sensitive but healed fast; but it riled up Starscream who turned and with a few steps towered over the suddenly apprehensive smaller, flame-coloured mech. The Seeker barely held himself back from attacking, but he did tear the blaster out of his servos with little care about clawing him in the process.

"Bæd mæhsss! Starrrskræm isss Atobot! Not attaksss! Frendsss!"

Hot Rod stood stupefied seeing the Seeker not afraid of him in the very least, in fact dressing him down like any of the officers, claiming to be an Autobot. Not that the other newcomers were any less shocked by it. They only ever saw Seekers in cages or under the control of various devices, mostly attacking them - but never one who walked and flew freely and could actually spoke. Starscream's wingmates also landed behind him and Skywarp also snarled at the flame-coloured mech for hurting his trine-leader, and it caused the newcomers' apprehension to grow tenfold. Three Seekers meant serious force if unleashed and these didn't seem to be under the command of anyone.

"Starscream, this is exactly why I told you to stay back for a bit," – Prowl was exasperated. – "so that I can explain to them first about your status."

"What IS their status? Unless I missed a memo, they are… animals…?" – Ultra Magnus wasn't stupid and didn't miss the clues, like the Seeker going around freely and talking on his own. He just couldn't believe it.

"Their status is ally and I suggest forgetting what you thought about Seeker intelligence. We had to rethink quite a few things about them."

"Sssorry, Prrrrol. I sssav an old frrrrend." – Starscream looked contrite for a nanoklik, but he shed it quickly. In his meta, the meeting with an old friend was more important than Autobots being told of him. – "Didna ssseen him fer mæny big cyclesss. Sssav him ssshot dovn by Atobotsss."

"Yes, we rescued Skyfire from a battlefield, close to deactivation." – Ultra Magnus couldn't believe his audials. He was holding a conversation with a… Seeker? – "How can you speak at all? I never saw a Seeker able to do that."

"It's a long story, Ultra." – Optimus was glad to see his old friend and with the reinforcements, they could possibly even overcome Megatron. Only, their presence on Earth must mean bad thing on Cybertron; Ultra Magnus wouldn't abandon his post without a strong reason. – "But we can tell it in the Ark, instead of standing around here, in the desert dust."

"I agree. This planet seems to be… extremely dusty."

"Ohh, it will seem a lot more else before long…" – Jazz couldn't help but tease the newcomers – Earth was truly as far in character from Cybertron as it could get.

Prowl saw one of the newcomers – Kup, he remembered the name from the introductions – to turn towards the big flier with a controller like the ones they used before. He started to tell him that it was a bad idea, but Starscream was faster and vicious talons grabbed the device out of the green hands and squashed it into a mangled wreck.

"No painfullll deviccc." – he growled, casting a disapproving look at the surprised bot. – "Stærssskream telsss Ssskyfire wherrr to go."

"Yes, Starscream, please explain thing to Skyfire and lead him to the Ark. Will he be all right with your Trine?"

"Yesss." – Prowl was interested to see that Starscream cast a distinctly warning glance at his trine-mates – "They'd betterrr behave."

* * *

><p><strong>Note1<strong>: Sideswipe doesn't really know exactly what interest him in the Seekers and what he wants to do with them. His attraction has elements of wing-envy (in this AU he doesn't have a jetpack and no regular mech can fly), elements of envy for their affection within the trine, like for a family that he never had – and of course some simple lust for the beautiful and lascivious fliers.

**Note2**: As means of aerial transportation the mechs in this AU use nonsentient transport/cargo planes, much like human ones, only somewhat bigger. Skyfire is an exception, because he was so big for a Seeker and after he was damaged and rescued, he got reformatted as such a big cargo plane capable of spaceflight – hence the shuttle form. In mech form he is smaller, but still big for a Seeker.


	7. Part VII

**Note:** It's been a while since I updated this story and for that I'm sorry from all readers waiting for it to update. I hope not to let it slip for so long from now on.

* * *

><p><strong>Trine dynamics<strong>

The four Seekers flew to the Ark together and Starscream, as he expected, noted his trine-mates casting distinctively jealous glances towards the new flier, Skyfire. When they were descending he saw Skywarp deliberately cutting through Skyfire's path, forcing him to bank hard to avoid collision and TC covered his mate while at it. They were starting it already. Skyfire, by Seeker standards was a loner, therefore inferior to any flier in a full trine. On the other wing, he was bigger and probably stronger than any of them and encroaching on their territory. Only the fact that Starscream as trine-leader was charged with leading him towards their nest held the other two back from outright attacking the big flier to chase away what they instinctly saw and judged as a threat.

Skyfire of course understood all of it perfectly and he was behaving humbly, giving way to Skywarp at once, not forcing the issue. He wasn't a confrontational type anyway, preferring to sing matters over before they could come to claws and fighting. When they arrived to the hangar door, he waited outside before the trine was inside and Starscream deliberately and loudly sang with as clear notes as he could produce _Skyfire/guest/right/enter_. His trine-mates couldn't disobey that without challenging him for the leadership and he saw no sign of such rebelliousness in the trine; they looked perfectly content with Starscream being their leader.

Even despite of this, Skywarp made sure to bang into his right wing as he passed by the bigger flier on his way in. It must have hurt his own wing more and Skyfire smothered a smile at the dark grimace that followed the loud clang. He trilled a small, wordless note that expressed equal amounts of respect and amusement and hitched his bigger, heavier wings higher. There was politeness and there was size and he'd not roll over to the smaller flier, even in their… was it even a nest?

Their place was… strange. Skyfire was used to cages like all Seekers but what these three had here was very clearly a nest, and a fairly big and comfortable one, even for someone his size. An unusual nest with the vaguely mech-type furniture and the myriad strange but colourful toys around, but still recognizable as a true Seeker home. He envied them for it greatly, just as much as their freedom. Even more shocking was when Starscream stepped to a machine by one wall and pulled a cube of energon from it. He sipped a small amount from the cube, gave it to his wing-second who also drank a little and it was passed on to Skywarp. The black Seeker was still glowering darkly to the big flier and sipped an impolitely big gulp from it, before pushing the meager remains towards Skyfire.

Skyfire took the cube with care, not used to holding such relatively small things with his large digits. It barely contained a small mouthful, but it was symbolical, since Starscream offered it and all his trine agreed – after drinking it he'd be accepted in their nest, at least temporarily. Well, as welcomed and accommodating as Skywarp could make himself to be – Starscream hissed disapprovingly again at his jealous wing-third and even cuffed his wingtip lightly. He was calmed only when the shuttle drank the energon. At their long lost home it would have been a small catch offered, but they had to make do with what they had here.

Politely, he announced all their designations, introducing them to Skyfire and telling them how he got to know the big flier. _Starscream/glad/see/again_ Skyfire sang in his deeper, clear baritone voice, strange from a Seeker. _Skyfire/hear/deeds/Starscream_ and _Autobots/tell/bad/Starscream_, he continued. Starscream answered with an _Autobots/enemy/fight_ and _flock/change/enemy/negative_, acting the story out also with his added a _Starscream/leave/Decepticon/flock_ and _join/trine/Autobot_. Skyfire flicked a wing to signal his understanding and answered with _Skyfire/glad/enemy_/_negative_.

He also asked _Starscream/flat/language/query_, remembering how the Seeker could speak to the grounder mechs. He, like most Seekers understood some of the flat words that were necessary to serve their masters, but he's never seen anyone with wings who could actually speak them. Starscream tried to explain it but devices, like vocal units had no Seeker names – but he sang _Starscream/voice/change_ and _learn/flat/language_. _Thundercracker/flat/language/learn_ he added to it. Skyfire looked very much interested in it and asked immediately _Skyfire/learn/query_. The answering _Autobots/help/change/voice_ seemed to satisfy him completely.

_Skyfire/big/query_, Starscream continued, his optics rowing over the transformed form, but meaning the newcomer's shuttle mode. Skyfire turned sad and warbled quietly _Skyfire/hurt/bad_ and _Autobots/change/wings_. The Seekers listening looked shocked and even Skywarp flicked a sympathetic wing hearing that. _Skyfire/slow/fly_, the big mech continued in a sad voice but continued with a proud flick of the great white wings and a thrum of his impressive engines _fly/high/cold/place_. Starscream wasn't sure that he understood it well. _Fly/up/cold/query_, he asked back, while his trine-mates stared.

_Affirm/fly/dark/place_, the answering warble came and Skyfire basked in the amazed stares of the three Seekers. Skywarp couldn't stay quiet and interrupted Starscream, asking _like/Starsinger/query_ with high and vibrating wings, servo excitedly grabbing Thundercracker's. Skyfire looked surprised for a klik, then laughed in a deep, rumbling voice. _Skywarp/singer/query_, he asked. Skywarp nodded, the learned gesture becoming casual for them, and canted his wings in affirmation too. _Skyfire/Seeker_ the big flier continued, _Starsinger/negative_.

_Fly/cold/place_ Starscream sang to both of them, _brave/big/Seeker/worthy_. His notes were firm, his glance to Skywarp containing a warning. The black flier's answer was a blatant caress on his wing's top edge, as much a claiming as a declaration of belonging. Starscream hissed and hitched his wing higher, not quite shaking the black servo off but Skywarp took it off hurriedly none the less. His hissed _lone/big/Seeker/slow_ was downright rude though. Starscream actually had to scratch a claw at his wing, causing a minor sting to remind him of his place and the required politeness towards the nest-guest.

Thundercracker cocked his helm to the side, the cant of his wings disapproving of his younger mate's blatantly rude behaviour to a nest-guest but not willing to do anything outright; he was jealous of the newcomer who seemed to be interested in Starscream as well. Skyfire, reading the whole scenario easily from the gestures only drew back a bit, lowering his wings. _Skyfire/intruder/sorry_, he sang and turning to Skywarp straight he continued with a _Trine/nest/home _and_ Skyfire/nest/guest_. The black Seeker wasn't placated fully, but he stood back and acknowledged the apology with a flick of his servo and a short trill.

_Skyfire/come/medic_, Starscream picked up the conversation, seeing that his recalcitrant mate was acquiescing finally, _learn/flat/words_. As they turned to leave the hangar, Skywarp was by his side in a flash, standing far closer than usually and his determined look told clearly than anywhere the two of them went, he'd go too. Thundercracker joined him with a silent agreement as well and Starscream sighed, his exasperated _come/all/together_ warbling out in his scratchy voice.

Skyfire hid a smile at the scene. He wasn't accepted yet… but he was tolerated. Starscream definitely wanted him to stay around, and his disapproving action towards Skywarp showed that he wanted it even against his trine-mates' opposing to it. That he wanted to stay was a given. There were no other Seekers among the Autobots, hardly any others on the whole planet and Starscream was the first who interested him… fascinated almost, the big flier thought, both by his behavior and his nature.

**Twin dynamics**

"Sides, stop. We must talk."

Sideswipe turned back from watching his target, surprised to see his twin behind. As far as he knew Sunstreaker should have been on duty and shirking it without a god reason wasn't like him.

"What's it Sunny? I'm busy here."

"Busy with staring at Seekers? That hardly counts."

"Frag off, Sunshine."

Sunstreaker scowled, but not even the hated nickname deterred him from his purpose.

"Leave them be now. We must talk." – he grabbed a red shoulder and started to drag the loudly disagreeing and protesting Sideswipe towards their shared quarters. – "Now, before they decide to drop you again and forget to catch."

"Come on, that was almost fun."

"Not to me, it wasn't." – he knocked on the red helm heavily – "You get snuffed, you empty-headed glitch and I go too."

Sideswipe turned serious suddenly as his twin let him saw through their bond just what it felt like to see him freefalling from the sky and his processor painting him to splat on the ground. He still pouted but sat down in their room meekly enough.

"Okay, okay, I get your point. But…"

"No buts. If you wanna have a Seeker, you'll have to do something different than pranking one."

"It worked so far…" – Sideswipe grimaced.

"Worked on mechs. But them Seekers are a different breed. They'd hardly think twice to get you."

"So what else? Don't try to tell me that you have a better idea."

A wave of bitterness rose in the twin bond as Sunstreaker jumped up from the berth and turned his back to him and Sideswipe berated himself for the thoughtless sentence. True, Sunny wasn't the most social of mechs and it has always been him who courted-pranked-cornered their newest lovers. But it wasn't nice to rub it in, especially when it seemed his twin did have some sort of an idea. Sideswipe sent a wordless apology back and with gentle force turned Sunstreaker back towards him.

"Okay Sunny, I listen. What have you come up with?"

"I talked with Wheeljack a few orns back." – Sunstreaker said gruffly, still insulted – "He invented something called jetpack and was looking for volunteers to try."

Sideswipe stared blankly. – "So?"

"So you could approach them in the air, you glitch!" – Sunstreaker yelled, frustrated with his brother, so bright usually, but sometimes behaving like an ignorant and dense sparkling.

"A jetpack…? It lets us fly?"

"Yeah. Not like antigravs, but real flying. Somewhat more like the Seekers do it, or so I understood."

Sideswipe's optics flashed as he started to get the idea.

"Ohh… the Seekers'd probably be interested in a grounder trying to fly like them."

"Exactly." – Sunstreaker nodded, satisfied that he could make his red twin listen. He smirked at the suddenly interested Sideswipe and continued – "But if you make them listen, I want to participate as well. Always wanted to feel those blue wings from up close."

"Blue goes well to your yellow."

"GOLD, you colour-blind idiot!" – Sunstreaker pushed his idiot twin back a bit more forcefully than before.

"Gold then, Sunshine." – Sideswipe ducked under the half-sparked punch and laughed. He'd seek out Wheeljack a bit later. Wrestling one black servo down he grabbed a helm-fin and pinched it, never above mixing fighting with something more lewd.

"Slagger!"

Sunstreaker tripped his red brother and dumped him on their berth, lunging after as he tried to slip away. Throwing himself on top of him, Sunstreaker held the wriggling frame down and his servos grabbed the other's over his helm. Rubbing his interface panel onto the red plating he heard the lustful moan taking the place of the snarling.

"Maybe we should… practice before catching Seekers…" – he murmured, muffling the answer with a deep kiss.

**In the air**

The Seekers sat in loose circle in their hangar that they called nest and Starscream was teaching Skyfire to speak in the way the mechs did, patiently correcting his pronunciation and explaining the words. As Sideswipe approached them, Skywarp looked up, but the rest of the Seekers didn't bother to stop their activity. Even to the frontliner it was obvious that the youngest Seeker was bored, his shifting stance, wings twitching and servos playing absentmindedly with a small toy told clearly that he wasn't interested in the topic. But he didn't leave, much as he'd've wanted to.

"Excuse me?" – Sideswipe knew them enough to direct his interrupting question to the trine-leader, Starscream.

"Yessss?" – Starscream narrowed his optics at seeing him, wings lifting up and flaring in a manner looking threatening to even the grounder mech. Obviously he'd recognized him as the one pranking their third before.

"I was hoping that you could help me with something."

Sideswipe approached them cautiously, making no threatening move towards the twitchy Seekers. In fact he showed his servos palm up, like he saw one of them do once, in a gesture he hoped meant nonthreatening.

"Hælp you? How?" – Starscream was surprised.

"I want to learn flying."

Sideswipe was more than a bit insulted when his utterance caused loud, twittering laughs erupting from all Seekers, complete with suddenly shushing and flapping wings. Skywarp was particularly seized with howling mirth, the black Seeker grasping his blue mate's arm so he wouldn't fall with laughter. Even the even-tempered, laid-back Skyfire smiled widely with them, never having heard such an idea from a grounder before and his great wings vibrated with mirth.

"You groundersss. No vingsss. No flying." – Starscream announced slowly, after he could silence his own laughter, like speaking to a dense youngling. He measured up the red frontliner carefully as he stood there, apprehensive but determined.

"But I have a jetpack." – Sideswipe was almost insulted enough to leave but he collected the remains of his pride and stayed. He wanted to fly and he wanted the Seekers. It was enough incentive to swallow being laughed at. – "It is like your thrusters, providing propulsion to fly and it has small wings to glide or steer too."

Starscream didn't understand the technical terms, but he got the gist of the sentence instinctly. Suddenly interested, he stood and circled the red mech, looking at the somewhat bulky pack attached to his back plates, warbling hesitantly at it. The other Seekers also quietened seeing his interest.

"Sssshow!" – he demanded, wanting to see it and understand the words. – "Point me thusssterss and proppussson."

Sideswipe identified the parts for him, cautiously firing up the thruster pack so it wouldn't take him up yet, just showing how it worked. – "Propulsion means the force that lets you go up in root mode."

The Seeker poked the pack, cocking his dark helm to the side when the smallish wings folded out. For a flier they looked pitiful, more like toys than real wings, barely coming out from the two sides of the red shoulders.

"Wingsss too sssmæll." – he criticized, making a motion to grab one but stopping suddenly. He looked back to his mates, noting that Skywarp was growling again and refrained from touching the wings. No matter that this was a grounder and the wings looked laughable, they were still wings – _of a sort_ - and Seeker instincts ran deep. – "Why ssso sssmæll?"

"Well, Wheeljack said they'd give enough lift. I don't know how he calculated it, but I want to try."

Starscream looked back to Skyfire, still eager to learn speaking and Skywarp jealous of… well, about everyone really at this point and made a quick decision. Trilling to his mates _teach/youngling/fly_, he pointed to the red frontliner. Thundercracker could handle the grounder and Skywarp would enjoy flying far more than sit on his aft and watch Skyfire to learn new words. He cut off Thundercracker's hesitant protest _youngling/negative/grounder_ with a sharp gesture and asked Skywarp _fear/grounder/query_. At the black Seeker's helmshake and flaring wings he turned to the mech again.

"My mætesss vill teach you fly."

Sideswipe couldn't dare to show his satisfaction at the idea, just nodded at him and grinned to the standing and approaching Skywarp. It was perfect and he didn't even have to do anything for the arrangement. The implied insult that the Trine-leader entrusted him to his mates instead of teaching him himself, completely avoided his attention.

"Sorry for the prank last time." – he told the Seeker and then smiled at him a bit nervously, remembering that he was the one who still didn't understand most of their speech – "I sure hope that you don't hold grudges…"

"Ssskyvarp not ængry." – the blue one, Thundercracker answered while Skywarp trilled back to him something that Sideswipe didn't understand but didn't sound angry. More like laughing in a way. – Come."

Sideswipe realized that it would be difficult to learn from them with the language barrier. But he followed them to the outside door, leaving Starscream sit back to the big shuttle-Seeker, apparently not paying them any more attention. His attention was completely captured by the swaying black wings in front of him, so much so that he didn't notice the blue Seeker watching him with drawn orbital ridges and increasingly flaring wings.

"Sssidesss vænna fly or fasse?" – the question was blunt, not the least because Thundercracker's grammar wasn't extensive enough for more elaborate ideas but it brought up Sideswipe short, stopping and looking at Thundercracker with a slight blush that few mechs could elicit from him.

"Ummm… fly mainly." – he swallowed nervously and mumbled the rest – "but I wouldn't say no to facing either…"

Skywarp's trilling laugh showed that he understood enough and the bigger Seeker didn't look angry either. They also stood closer to him than ever before, making him squirm at the sight of so much enticingly swaying wings so close. It made his plating feel hot and a size too small.

"Fasse isss good. Mehsss doesssn't like ssspeak fassing. Ve vænt fasse – ve sssay ssso." – the words sounded mangled and hissing, but understandable.

"Umm… good to know." – and Sideswipe wondered just why he was feeling embarrassed. He and his twin were among the most open about interfacing in the whole crew of the Ark. But apparently that still fell short of the Seekers' straightforward approach.

He felt a questing digit sliding on the top edge of the small wings and sensors hitherto unknown fired up in a strong flare of something sensual, hot and oh so good… he turned back to see the black Seeker very close… close enough to have ideas beside flying. If he translated gestures correctly this move was as blatant an invitation as grabbing somemech's aft would be for him. The Seeker's deep red optics and smirk definitely said so.

"Ssshov jetpækk vorrrk." – the deeper voice came from his left and Sideswipe had trouble to gather his wandering thoughts. Yes… jetpack… flying… gotta pay attention… he fumbled for a klik with the newly installed components and fired the jetpack up, lifting slowly into the air. This far he'd already gone in Wheeljack's lab, making sure the thing wouldn't explode on him.

The Seekers rose with him effortlessly, making him envious of their equilibrium and ease of movement.

"Balanssse vidth vingsss! Not trusssterss!" – he heard the instruction, realizing that so far he'd only relied on the thruster's lift for his balance and didn't even consider the wings to be there too. Cautiously, Sideswipe moved the flaps, loosing his so far maintained balance and falling into an impromptu dive like a stone. Slag, he thought, not even sure where the ground was in the spin, instinctly feeding more power to the thruster pack… until strong arms embraced him out of a sudden and he felt the nauseating pull of a short spatial jump. Set down on the ground he heard the trilling laugh again from two different registers and he scowled, waiting them to finish.

"Sssidessswipe nows how vingsss vork?" – Thundercracker's deeper voice still contained the smile.

"Slag, no. That's why I came to you guys." – to rise high into the air was exhilarating and Sideswipe didn't even try to hide his excitement that was almost as strong as his lust for the Seekers.

"Mæy touch?" – Another servo hovered over his shoulder, the blue Seeker obviously less forward with touching other's wings than his mate.

"Sure. Mine are not that sensitive than yours… I think."

Thundercracker started to explain how wings worked in a broken Cybertronian and with lots of display from the cooperative Skywarp when he run out of words. It was difficult lesson and Sideswipe didn't even get everything for the first time, but his next rising to the air was a more successful affair. He'd even managed to change his trajectory, going for a short while horizontally instead of just a vertical rise. That it ended a steep dive and a crash he'd almost expected.

The important thing was that by the end of the lesson, called by Ratchet, shooting him dark glowers, the Seekers both felt comfortable around him – and he got to grab those enticing black wings a few times under the pretense of learning how flaps and ailerons moved. Skywarp on the other servo learned that for grounders the faux wings were definitely not as sensitive as theirs and he achieved better reactions by grabbing a wheel-well or a headlight than pawing those uselessly.

_Grounder/wing/useless_ he sang to Thundercracker, a short, lewd trill denoting what kind of uselessness he meant; the blue Seeker shrug a wing back and answered with _grounder/different_. Skywarp laughed a brief note and sang back _colour/nice/like_. Sideswipe knew from the gestures that he was the topic but since he couldn't understand their singsong language, he didn't know what it was about.

"Uhmmm... could you tell that to me…?"

Thundercracker looked at him with those dark red optics and Sideswipe nearly shuddered. The Seekers looked far more dangerous since nothing could curb their natural aggression and instincts, especially when they felt like defending each other. But after a tense klik the blue Seeker answered in his deep, hissing voice, a sudden and unexpected smirk lightening his visage.

"Skyvarrrrp likesss not yoursss vingsss."

"Ohhh… great… thanks." – Sideswipe felt a tiny bit insulted, even though said wings were not really _his_, per se, just tools to lift him up in the air. – "Not every mech can have wings like yours…"

But the Seeker continued, like he hasn't heard the red frontliner's words.

"But Skyvarrrp likesss yourss kolor." – he paused for a klik nearly visibly trying to find the words – "I likesss you too… but not the prænksss."

"Uhh… sorry about those again… I prank every mech around, it's like a game."

Sideswipe wasn't sure about the glance that passed between the two Seekers but it sure wasn't angry or inimical. Not with Skywarp still smirking at him in a faintly disturbing way… the red twin shuddered inwardly to recognize the grin as similar to his own, the way he was observing his next target, usually a minibot. So far he hasn't been on the receiving end of such a stare and intent behind it. The black Seeker suddenly looked far more devious and not in an aggressive way…

"Kome."

The two Seekers suddenly surrounded him, wings shushing and clawtips sliding sensually on his plating, leaving tingling tracks behind. Their hangar – what they called nest – was just ahead and Sideswipe wondered how they got here so fast. Then he remembered how Skywarp got his designation and that was his last coherent thought for a while.

**On the ground**

"masssh?"

"No! Ssssæy like thisss: Mechsss!" – Starscream repeated the word again, enjoying the teaching just as it was good practice for him too. – "Them mechsss don't understænd usss. Ssssay ve ssspeak hisssing."

_Autobot/sing/flat_, Skyfire answered to him after trying and giving up expressing it with the few words he so far learned.

"Autobotsss don't sssing. They ssspeak. We sssing."

_Sing/negative/ever/query_ Skyfire asked, not even able to imagine the concept. He lifted both large wings in a shocked surprise, casting a glance to the other Seeker sitting opposite to him. His right wing twitched towards Starscream, like on his own and the big flier nearly sank in embarrassment at the involuntary movement.

"Sssome sssing. Like Jæsss." – Starscream paused, flicking a wing absentmindedly in a nonchalant answer – "Jæss sssinging isss different."

"Hov ssso?" – Skyfire proudly employed the expression he heard so many times now that he understood its meaning.

"Mechsss' sssongsss full of ekssson. Thingsss they do. Not thingsss they feel." – Starscream canted the nearer wing minutely towards Skyfire, curious of the reaction. The topic they were talking about suddenly took a lesser importance even as they continued to talk and sing aloud - "Ssstarscream likesss Jæss voisss but not the sssongsss."

_Mechs/voice/good_, Skyfire agreed, similarly preoccupied from the topic. He shifted on the stool where he sat and his servo started to beat a rhythm on his tight plating before he realized it and curled up the errant digits into a fist. It was nearly impossible not to lift it and see what he'd get for touching the Trine leader's proud wing… but the white Seeker collected himself with some difficulty and stayed the adventurous servo. He couldn't help the staccato purring of his engine though and he was fairly sure that his optics caught a fleeting smile on the dark faceplates.

The previous topic was forgotten as the two Seekers played out the ages old dance. Wings shushed and twitched, turbines purred excitedly and nervously, servos moved and signaled things neither of them could say yet. Thrustered heels tapped on the ground and optics darted to catch each movement while trying to remain visibly disinterested. They both still sat on their stools, not going any closer to each other, but the air between them slowly started to fill up with a strange tension.

Starscream turned slightly to the side and flexed his wings backwards in a way so they caught the best lighting, the warm white of the overhead lights sliding on the red stripe proudly. He almost felt the admiring gaze roaming all over them, the first barely audible purr of the mighty interstellar engines growing stronger by the klik. His servo played with the cube, the remaining mouthful of energon in it sloshing as the talons turned the vessel this way and that, showing off their deadly sharpness. Starscream noted with satisfaction that the blunt, white digits twitched closer and had entertained naughty thoughts as to what they would be good for.

Skyfire's optics were nearly glued to the curve of the dark throat with those sensual but strong cables on it when Starscream lifted his helm and bent it slightly backwards in a seemingly nonchalant stretching movement. The blue optics seemed to acquire a fire in their depths as they feasted on the sensuous display and Skyfire felt that fire warm his spark as well. He very much hoped that the other two trine-mates would in time approve of him more… that Starscream did he had no doubt, not after the display he put on. He was just about to shift his stool a tiny bit closer when…

"I hope that I'm not disturbing anything…?"

The deep voice that intruded to their charged little universe was like cold acid rain on their heated flirting. Skyfire's engine gave an angry throb and he flexed his wings up to their fullest extent, while Starscream reacted even stronger. The tricoloured Seeker jumped onto his thrusters and his claws were flexed out in an unmistakably threatening manner towards the unexpected visitor, growling low from his vocalizer.

He stopped himself with a great effort just before his talons would rip into the warm metal in front of him… but almost straight away his posture wilted, the claws were pulled back and his wings lowered as he realized the intruder as their de facto flock leader, Optimus Prime. Skyfire was even more frightened – the memories of punishments were far more recent in his mind.

"Sss…sorry…" – Starscream mumbled, torn between the impulse to show obedience and contrition to the Autobot leader and his standing and worth to Skyfire. He hitched up his wings again, reasoning that the grounder would not understand it anyway, showing boldness that he hardly felt and stepped protectively in front of the cowering shuttle.

"No, it is me who should say sorry, as I have intruded at your place." – Optimus Prime was no fool and understood well enough both the fliers' anger at his entry and the subsequent fear at their own reaction. He held up his servos, palms outward and up to show that he meant no threatening them.

The Seekers had ever right for their privacy and every reason to be afraid of showing aggression towards their former masters. Since his last talk about Prowl, he understood a bit more the complex situation the fliers were in; the trine was a unit with Starscream heading it, but part of the flock too, of which he was the nominal leader. He also understood that it was unnatural for the fliers, who generally didn't have such multi-tiered society, with each flock or trine independent in the nature.

"Our nessst… isss in yur nessst." – Starscream hissed still in front of Skyfire, the big flier still uneasy and fearful behind him, warbling quietly.

"But I should have announced my coming and I promise to do so in the future."

Starscream looked blank at that, not even recognizing the concept. Nodding his helm to the side, calming down slightly as his curiosity overwrote the angry reaction, he pondered.

"Isss… thisss thæt politenesss thing too?"

"Yes." – Optimus Prime was sure that he was disturbing the fliers, just not sure what he could do about it. – "I came to ask Skyfire about continuing to carry my mechs if needed."

Starscream shuddered strongly at the idea, wings shaking in a sinuous motion as they dipped and rose back up in distaste. To have others inside him while flying, living, moving mechs in his hold, stomping on his inner plating… it was an atrocious idea as far as he was concerned. He glanced at Skyfire, the mech not used to say no to their masters, nor now to their flock leader. The big flier was upset by the idea too, but somewhat resigned as well, having fulfilled that function many times before.

But his status was now a questionable thing among the Autobots and the Seekers too. Starscream had no say in his decision, not yet, not until he either joined the Trine, mated with Starscream… either of which was unlikely to come soon if his own trine-mates' reactions were any indication. So, as of now, the flier had to decide the matter for himself and it wasn't likely that he could say no. Still, shrugging a wing, Starscream stepped aside from his position in front of the shuttle, letting him face Optimus Prime. He noted the raised brow-plate of the mech, not understanding their relationship, but he wasn't going to elaborate on that part. He tried to give Skyfire a bit more time and some support though.

"Do you underssstænd what your æsssking?"

A bemused expression appeared in those blue optics, the faceplates hidden by the mask.

"What do you mean, Starscream?"

"It isss an abominæssson. Disssgusting."

"But… I can carry mechs in my hold too." – The big mech told them and was surprised by the strong shudders from both fliers – "I take it that you don't consider it the same thing…"

"Sssekersss are not made to carry mechsss."

"But shuttles are."

"Ssskyfire isss no sparklesss shuttle!" – Starscream raised his voice again, clearly agitated and even Skyfire looked disturbed as he looked from one of them to the other, following the discussion with difficulties. – "Ssskyfire isss Ssseker!"

"I didn't say he is sparkless. But he is a shuttle now... isn't he?"

"Sssekerrr!" – Skyfire's deeper voice joined in their argument, cutting them both off.

He hitched his wings up indignantly. He understood that the Autobots saved his life with the reformat to a shuttle-frame and he accepted it so far, mainly because he had no other choice – but now, among other Seekers, especially around Starscream, it was an important point to clear that he was still a Seeker, no matter the frame. He had virtually no chance to win the tricoloured Seeker as a mate if he was degraded in the optics of his trine-mates and being considered a mere shuttle, transporting other mechs, grounders inside was definitely a debasing notion that he didn't need.

Optimus Prime knew that he was missing something that made the two Seekers so agitated about the idea he presented – he just didn't know what. He'd came to them thinking that it was just a matter of politeness to ask Skyfire about his continuing services – but now he had to consider losing their only aerial transport with both fliers apparently feeling strongly enough against it to protest.

Not that he would order the Seekers to obey, no matter how they needed his help. Once their sentience was decided, the Prime considered them exactly the same way as his Autobots; his soldiers, but their own mechs besides. Just as he wouldn't order them to do something they considered against their world-view, he wouldn't do it with the Seekers either. Of course he'd do a lot to convince Skyfire about the importance of his help before loosing the shuttle. Leaving the fliers to their conversation, or rather singing, he sought out Prowl, who seemed to understand the Seekers the best.

"I just don't get it. Skyfire never protested against transporting us until now."

"We rather discouraged them from protesting anything." – understatement of the vorn from Prowl – "I doubt that they'd enjoyed the cages either."

"True that. But now they seem to consider the matter as particularly important. I wonder why?"

"Maybe it's the presence of the other Seekers." – Prowl multitasked marvelously. Talking to the Prime hasn't even slowed him down in filing reports – "They had a complex society as Starscream told me. Social status is very important for them."

"While Skyfire used to be the only flier in Ultra Magnus's forces, so he didn't have to care about his status."

"Precisely. Besides as slaves, they all had the same rank. Or lack of it." – Prowl noted – "But now there are the four of them and Skyfire who he has no Trine or mate is automatically lower in the social ladder. Being made to transport grounders would lower his status even further."

"That's logical. Unfortunate for us, but it is likely the reason."

Prowl put down the datapads and steepled his digits together. He pondered for a few nanokliks, his battle computer assessing all the data he learned from the Seeker.

"Maybe we can help him in this."

"How?"

"His ability to leave the atmosphere is considered a specialty by the other Seekers, one that makes him more valuable. Maybe we can play on that and have him impress Starscream's Trine with a few offworld missions first."

Optimus Prime's blue optics flashed over his mask in merry and he answered with an unseen but there smile – "You truly understand them Prowl."

"Not fully, but I find their society fascinating and Starscream likes to talk about it." – he didn't mention his still-lingering guilt stemmed from his actions so many megavorns ago.

"Meaning that we should all make an effort to understand them better…" – Optimus Prime nodded, the smile disappearing – "I will endeavor to do so in the future. We owe them a lot… thousands of vorns worth of maltreatment. The least we can do is to learn their way of life."

"There is one more angle to consider. Starscream told that Seekers never sparked in captivity, even though Shockwave tried to force that issue with the Decepticon Seekers. But with the amount of interfacing they do now it will be only a matter of time before one of them is sparked."

Optimus Prime looked shocked. – "I don't suppose they use any kind of prevention…"

"Highly unlikely."

"I don't think we are ready for families here, in the middle of the war. Ratchet will be torqued. Red Alert too. And if they have sparklings… how many of the others will want too…?"

"I do not believe that these concerns even crossed their processors. They rather live in the present."

"We'll have to talk to Starscream about it. Can you…? I mean you are the one they accept the most."

"I believe that this is a matter they wouldn't take kindly if I tried to bring up. Their society is highly hierarchical, with you as the 'flock leader' on top as things stand now. Starscream would be slighted if anyone else but you brought up such a serious matter to him."

Prowl saw the frustrated glance that the Prime threw at him and inwardly he smiled, carefully hiding his mirth from the bond with Jazz. Let Optimus learn how embarrassing it was to try and converse such a topic with the Seekers who found no shame in calling matters as they were instead of paraphrasing.

The two officers has just left Prowl's office to gather their evening cube when they saw Sideswipe… ambling on the corridor. The frontliner was definitely on the strange end of the scale with his half-dazed expression, loose limbs barely propelling him forward, swaying from side to side and the curious little smile on his lipplates. He didn't even notice the two officers stepping aside and watching incredulously as he ambled by.

"Sideswipe…? – Optimus Prime's voice was concerned – "Is everything… all right?"

Sideswipe looked up, turned back to observe them, obviously surprised to find them so close.

"Yes Sir! Everything is just… peachy, Sir!" – and he was off with a motion Optimus Prime hesitated to call skipping.

He and Prowl stared after him nearly frozen for a breem, nearly shocked by the answer and the way it was delivered. Prowl was the first to shake off the shock.

"I do believe that I saw black and purple paint streaks on Sideswipe's backside."

"But no Autobot has those colours… ohhh."


End file.
